The Aurat Foundation, War Against Rape (WAR) and other human rights organisations have announced that they would support and follow the legal proceedings to provide justice to a female student of class nine from Landhi who was blackmailed by her cousin.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday by Advocate Rubina Brohi of the Aurat Foundation, the girl, who resides in Landhi, was forced by her cousin to accept his marriage proposal. When she refused, he made a forged video of her that shows her indulged in objectionable acts and threatened her that if she does not have sex with him, he will send the video to other people. When she refused, he distributed the video in her neighbourhood.
“Though the girl’s family lodged a case against the culprit, the FIR unfortunately got registered under an incorrect act (506) and her family, being poor and illiterate, got misled by police. The FIR was a bailable one and the culprit managed to get an interim bail and continued to threaten the family. We human rights activists are trying to provide her with justice,” said Brohi in the statement.
In the statement, Brohi, Farida and Asia of WAR, human rights lawyer advocate Inamul Hasan and Syeda Riaz Bano and Yousuf Khatak of the Child, Labour Rights Welfare Organisations announced that legal proceedings should be followed to provide justice to the girl.
“We demand that the FIR should have been lodged under the Cyber Crime (non-bailable offence) and the Sexual Harassment Act, 2010. This measure would not only have given leverage and face value to the girl and her family, but also put the culprit to shame for illegitimate use of resources against an innocent girl. A strong message needs to be conveyed to those who have similar ulterior motives of putting lives and honour of innocent girls and their families at stake,” they said in the statement.