Mahira Khan and Mehwish Hayat, among other celebrities have condemned the brutal gang-rape of a mother of two and have demanded for the mindset to be changed.
Mehwish Hayat, in a tweet said: “Scream all you want about ‘Public Hanging of Rapists’ – nothing will happen till the mindset changes.”
Similarly, sharing a quote by Manto, Mahira said: “Hang them! Kill them! Publicly shame them! – It won’t change a thing. The problem is so deeply ingrained within our society, so deep-rooted, that even the officer said: ‘She shouldn’t have left at that time. This is the way our society is’.”
“Why should we accept this mindset? Why should we question the victim yet again and not the those who commit the crime?” she questioned.
On Tuesday night, two robbers reportedly gang-raped a mother of two on the Motorway within Gujjarpura police’s jurisdiction. The woman, along with her two children, was driving to Gujranwala in her car when she was forced to stop at the Gujjarpura section of the Motorway after running out of fuel at around 1:30 am. She immediately called a relative and sent him her location. He asked her to also dial the Motorway Police helpline 130 but she was reportedly refused help.
In the meantime, two robbers approached the car, broke the window and took the woman and her children to nearby bushes where they raped her repeatedly in front of the children. They also snatched her purse that had cash around Rs100,000, one bracelet, car registration and three ATM cards.
The Gujjarpura police have registered a case, while the motorway police spokesperson said they had not been able to take action as the incident did not occur in the limits of Motorway Police.
The incident, followed by Lahore’s new Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh’s comments have sparked outrage nationwide. According to details, the CCPO said: “I am shocked… you are a mother of three and the only driver late at night… [she] should have taken the GT [Grand Trunk] Road instead, which is densely populated.”
Sheikh went on to say that the woman should “at least have checked her fuel before taking the motorway”.
Humayun Saeed said that he was “shocked beyond belief and extremely distressed to learn about this incident.”
Ayesha Omar talked about how she didn’t even feel safe in her own country.
Mansha Pasha and Hareem Farooq said that the victim is not to be blamed.
Adnan Siddiqui and Sarwat Gilani expressed their shock over the incident.
“My head hangs in shame. I am really sorry,” wrote Adnan.
“It’s heartbreaking, blood boiling and extremely sad to see this news,” said Sarwat.
Several celebrities including Feroze Khan, Mawra Hocane, Aijaz Aslam, Faysal Quraishi, Asim Azhar, Yumna Zaidi, Minal Khan, Sarah Khan and Ali Rehman Khan called for the public hanging of rapists.
Feroze urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to take swift action and not let down his voters.
Meanwhile, Sanam Saeed, Shaniera Akram and Ushna Shah felt that hanging is ‘nothing’ and an easy way out for the criminals.
Osman Khalid Butt had similar thoughts and called for the system to be fixed.
