Pak court orders police protection for Hindu rape victim

A Pakistani court in the southern Sindh province has ordered the police to provide protection to a Hindu woman who was allegedly raped last month by a man belonging to an influential family, a media report said today.
Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh of the Sindh High Court (SHC) yesterday issued the order after taking a suo motu notice of the alleged rape which took place in Kunri area of the Umerkot district.
The Chief Justice directed the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Mirpurkhas and the Umerkot Superintendent of Police (SP) to provide security to the victim and her family, the Dawn reported.

He ordered the police to take action against the culprit belonging to an influential family, it said.
Umerkot SP Usman Ijaz Bajwa submitted a report before the court yesterday, stating that the DIG Mirpurkhas had constituted a committee under his supervision.
The committee, including the sub-divisional police officer of Kunri and the Nabisar Station House Officer (SHO), has been tasked to conduct a fair and impartial investigation into the incident.

The report said that the FIR of the incident had been registered at the Nabisar police station and the suspect was arrested.
It said that the medical examination of the victim, daughter of a farmer, was conducted at the Kunri taluka hospital and the samples for a DNA test were also collected.

The medical reports confirmed that the victim was subjected to a sexual assault and the investigation was under way, the report said.
The SP informed the court that a show-cause notice had been issued to the SHO concerned.
Earlier, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) had said that on an average around 20 to 25 Hindu girls were forcibly converted to Islam every month in the southern Sindh province.