Area Magistrate Raja Ali Raza accepted the police request for a five-day physical remand of the main accused Danish Sheikh in medical student Khadija Ghafoor’s torture case in Faisalabad on Thursday.
The court, after hearing arguments of both sides, handed over the main accused to the investigation police. A large number of people gathered outside the court, with some of them also trying to beat the accused.
However, police had made strict security arrangements in and around the court, while teams of the anti-riot police force were present to tackle any untoward situation.
The women’s police station had registered a case against 16 accused under sections 376, 382, 342, 354,149, 148, 337 Lii, 337Ai, 337 Fi and 337v. Six of them were arrested while others were at large.
The court had already sent a woman, accused Maham, on judicial remand to jail, while four others Shoaib, Asghar, Feezan and Tayyab were handed over to the police for two days on physical remand.
Meanwhile, the police said that the torture of Khadija had been proved in a medico-legal report. City Police Officer Umar Saeed Malik had constituted an inquiry committee to probe the case.
SSP Investigation Cap (Retd) Muhammad Ajmal would head the committee, while SP Madina Town Muhammad Nabeel and DSP Kotwali Qazi Farooq are among the members. DSP Legal Shehzad Ilyana, DSP CIA Mudasar Hanif and SHO Women Police Station Farah Batool are the coordinating officers of the committee.
A local industrialist, Sheikh Danish, had proposed marriage to Khadija Ghafoor, a classmate of his daughter Ana Danish, but she refused. It infuriated the accused, who along with his 16 accomplices, abducted Khadija and subjected her to physical torture.
According to details, Khadija, a BDS final year student, was tortured with the help of his daughter and other colleagues. The hair on her head were cut while the victim student was also reportedly forced to lick the industrialist’s shoes. The accused made a video of the torture and spread it on social media.
Separately, an emergency meeting of the Pakistan Medical Association was held in which Dr Muhammad Irfan, Dr Tufail Muhammad, Dr Khurram Sohail Raja, Dr Solat Nawaz and Dr Rai Arif participated. In the meeting, the excessive violence and immoral acts committed against the medical student were strongly condemned.
Addressing the meeting, Dr Irfan said that the student being subjected to violence for her refusal to marry is a reflection of violent attitudes toward women. “Perverted old rich men like Sheikh Danish are ruining the lives of girls, but the law is silent on it,” he added. “Unfortunately, the law does not include any specific provisions regarding this humiliation and in a few days the accused will be out of jail.”
The doctors demanded a law be passed in the Punjab Assembly setting up strict punishment for humiliating a victim. The doctors also warned that if the police did not stop treating the accused as guests, they would protest and cease work in hospitals.
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