DPA
A young woman was gang raped, murdered and hanged from a tree in Pakistan yesterday, police said, amid a spate of violent attacks on women in the region.
Muzamil Bibi, 20, disappeared from her home in the southeastern district of Layyah in Punjab province shortly after midnight on Thursday, police investigator Ilyas Ahmed said.
Hours later family members found her body hanging from a tree in nearby fields, Ahmed said, adding that the victim’s father had told police he thought his daughter had been kidnapped.
There were signs of torture on the body and an autopsy confirmed she was gang raped before being strangulated, he said.
Another police official said three suspects had been arrested.
The news comes after the stoning to death of a young woman in front of a courthouse by members of her own family caused a global outcry last month.
In June, another Pakistani woman survived after being shot, trapped inside a sack and thrown into a canal for marrying a man of her own choosing.
“The shocking incidents in recent weeks show vulnerability of women in Pakistan,” said Farzana Bari, a rights activist based in the capital Islamabad.
The rape and killing of women has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent years, according to data compiled by rights group Aurat Foundation and other
organisations.
Suspects often escape punishment, taking advantage of loopholes in what lawyers have said are outdated and convoluted laws.
