Social justice?

[Bang_Ali]

Go and check the following link.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/...in514039.shtml

Ive got the main story copied below:

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for four men who allegedly gang-raped a woman in a remote village after a tribal council ordered the punishment, her attorney said on Wednesday.

Police have arrested 18 people in connection with the June 22 rape, including some of the council members in Meerwala.

"We have made all preparations for filing charges against the culprits in a local court (Thursday)," said Ramzan Khalid Joya, the woman's lawyer.

She was raped after a tribal council in the village ordered the woman's family to be punished because her 11-year-old brother was seen walking unchaperoned with a girl belonging to a different tribe.

The woman's family was from the Gujar tribe, considered lower-class than the Mastoi tribe, the tribe of the boy's companion. The council was Mastoi, as were the men who carried out the rape.

Punishments handed down by tribal councils are common in Pakistan and often are outside Pakistani law.

"The violence against women is not a new phenomenon, but incidents of gang-rape have suddenly increased in Pakistan," said Naeem Mirza, a spokesman for Pakistan's Aurat Foundation, a women's rights organization.

"Mostly, those who commit gang-rapes or kill women in the name of honor are influential tribesmen or feudal, therefore, they escape punishment," Mirza said. "Women are often punished for the crimes committed by male members of their families."

The gang-rape has outraged rights groups, who say the increase in violence against women reflects the demeaning status of women in the country who are victims of a centuries-old tribal justice system.

"Usually, families of the victim of rape don't report these matters to the police to avoid further shame and disgrace," Mirza said.

News of the rape shocked authorities and Pakistan's military ruler, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, gave the woman's family a check for $8,000 as compensation and said a new school would be built in her name.

Joya said all the suspects are in jail at Muzaffargarh, a southern city of Pakistan, near the woman's village.

Now I ask you, what kind of a society is this? What kind of people are these? I could understand that, if the woman got raped by some miscreants on the street, but for the elders of society, the “murrobbhi” to order such an inhumane act?

Arent the elders in a society meant to be the ones who keep some control over society and calm down tense situations? But when you have the “responsible" ones behaving like this, then what are the rest of them like?

Think of the cases that we dont hear about?

P.S is $8,000 the price of a pakistani womans honour?

[burns]

It really is tragic beyond belief.

We should all pray to Allah ta that we become better muslims and for him to strengthen us against the influences of shaitan. Clearly he had a primary role in the case above.

[Amar-Sonar-Bangla]

Women are treated badly throughout South Asia. One reason is that women are seen as the repository of family honour. As such, they must be cloistered and protected against any possible ‘taint’. Hinduism and Islam’s value on the purity of the woman serves to give a certain legitimacy to the already entrenched patriarchal (often tribal hierarchies in South Asian society.

The worst case I read of occurred under the conservative Islamic rule of General Zia Ul Haq. A blind Pakistani woman was raped and went to court in pursuit of justice. In court, she was asked to point out the accused. Obviously, she could not.

She was publicly flogged for making a ‘false’ accusation!

In fact, the Islamic Hudood ordnances enacted in Pakistan usually deter rape victims from coming forward to report this crime and seek justice. As failure to prove their case may lead to public humiliation and worse, a flogging.

Unfortunately, it is the victim rather than the perpetrator who is demonised.

[Bang_Ali]

Originally posted by burns
It really is tragic beyond belief.

We should all pray to Allah ta that we become better muslims and for him to strengthen us against the influences of shaitan. Clearly he had a primary role in the case above.

Again, this is another case of shifting responsibility. Why cant people be responsible for their own actions rather than blaming shaitan? Why does that guy get the blame for peoples wrong doings?

Why cant people accept that you have free will. Why does dev get all the blame?

Did he force the old gits to pronounce their sick judgement? Did he tell the rapists to carry out their deeds? Did he force the sick ass holes to cheer outside while the event took place? NO. They did it on their own free will which the big G has given them.

They are just sick b@stards inbred in a sick society..

[MAC]

This is just disgusting. These are sick B@stards.

These Ignorant miscreants should be punished for such crimes they Commit.

They are low life Imbeciles.

[fug]

the case is quite old.
dissapoining that such lowlifes can masquerade as enlightened and judicious and religious.
theres places in pak where their law and order does not reach. this case highlight how the strongmen threaten society.

lawlessness is not peculiar to the place mentioned in the article.


_________________________________________________

Six to hang in Meerwala rape case

Convicts to pay Rs 40,000 fine each, eight acquitted; verdict announced after midnight

By our correspondent

LAHORE: A Dera Ghazi Khan Anti-Terrorism Court in the wee hours of Sunday convicted six people to death with a fine of Rs 40,000 for each in Mukhtiar Mai gang-rape case. Remaining eight accused were acquitted in the trial.

The victim of the June 22 crime, Mukhtiar Mai, 30, was not present when the court announced the decision amid tight security and crowds of people, onlookers and journalists representing local and foreign media.

The six people who were given death penalty in the Meerwala rape case were the main rapists Allah Ditta Mastoi, his younger brother Abdul Khaliq Mastoi, Fayyaz Hussain, Ghulam Farid, a Jurist (Panch) Ramzan and the Head of the Jury (Sir Panch) Faiz Bukhsh Mastoi, who also happens to be an elder of the Mastoi Tribe of the area.

Those who were acquitted are Muhammad Aslam, Qasim, Ghulam Hussain, Hazoor Bukhsh, Rasool Bukhsh, Khalil, Nazar Hussain and Allah Ditta. The Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Zulfiqar Ali Malik reached the court to announce the decision at about 11:50 pm, while the accused had been brought at the premises from Dera Ghazi Khan Central Jail at about 11:30 pm.

As soon as the judgment was delivered at 12:10 am early Sunday, the convicts were dispatched back to the DG Khan Central Jail by the authorities. Talking to journalists, Mukhtiar Mai said that members of her family had been threatened with death if the men were convicted. She said at her guarded home early Saturday she hoped for death sentences. But Mai's brother, Hazoor Baksh, said his family was living in fear.

Mai said she had received repeated threats from the Mastoi clan. "They are threatening that if their people are hanged, then they will kill two of (my clan's) tribesmen for each man hanged."

Mukhtiar Mai, a 30-year-old divorcee, was allegedly raped for more than an hour in a hut in Meerwala in order to atone for her younger brother's alleged affair with a sister of one of the accused rapists.

"Mastoi tribesmen are revengeful and they are threatening us. We are not afraid of dying, even if we die, even if they kill us, we will have the satisfaction before Almighty Allah (God) that we succeeded in raising our voice against barbarism," chief prosecution witness Abdul Razak said.

"We do not expect that the court will let us down. We expect the court to do justice in the name of God. God has given poor people like us the power to to stand up and we are sure -- God willing -- that he will give the same strength to the judge and deliver justice."

"Police are all around us, they say they will protect us, but we don't know what will happen. "We don't want to live the rest of our lives under police escort. But we are praying to God that those who committed wrong against us get the punishment they deserve," he said.

Police commandos early Saturday had sealed off the anti-terrorism court, in what was expected to be the last day of the trial of 14 men charged in relation to the gang-rape allegedly sanctioned by a tribal council (Panchayat).

Crowds of curious onlookers, journalists and squads of police remained gathered outside a special court here Saturday in anticipation of a verdict in the gang-rape case.

Journalists and other observers had arrived at the court early Saturday morning, but the judge appeared late in the night. "This delay is strange... Normally such delays are not witnessed," defence lawyer Yasir Khosa earlier told journalists outside the court.

Some 20 black-clad commandos of Elite Force ringed the court-house and DG Khan and Muzaffargarh police erected the barricades, as dozens of onlookers and villagers from Meerwala, the home of the alleged victim Mukhtiar Mai and rapists, gathered in front.

Dera Ghazi Khan police chief Asif Hayat said the security measures were 'part of a high alert because of the overall threat perception' across Pakistan, which has been gripped by a wave of deadly attacks on Christians and Westerners by the Muslim militants.

Prosecutors were demanding the death penalty for all 14 accused, including the four men charged with raping Mukhtiar Mai and 10 members of the informal village council charged with abetting the June 22 gang-rape. The alleged attackers belonged to the Mastoi clan

The accused have denied the charges. One of them, Abdul Khaliq, told the court during the four-week trial that he had undergone a formal marriage ceremony to Mai hours before the alleged attack, claiming that she was technically his wife. Mai has denied any marriage ceremony took place.

Defence lawyer Khosa said an appeal would be launched as his clients were not cleared. The trial began July 26 after the Supreme Court of Pakistan, describing the attack "the most heinous crime in 21st century Pakistan," ordered an anti-terrorism court to hear the case.

http://www.jamiat.org.za/news/spring/sept1a.html

[SNOOP_KUTHA]

there some sick twisted individuals


lets not blame the devil like bang ali said, these all have the choice to choose da good option or da bad option, dey chose da bad ones, therefore dey shud be punished

i mean wot kinda punishment is that anyway, raping a female...i dont even think they wanted punishment, the truth is there perverts who will do it to anyone to bust a nut...thats why they should all be hanged and 8000 isnt enough, nor is buildin a fukin skool in her name...build a skool in the name of the ppl who are brave enough to rid pakistan or any other country of these sick twisted inbeciles

nuff said