Victim of 23 stabbings to sit in same exam hall as her assailant

A female law student stabbed 23 times by her classmates last year is to sit in an exam with the perpetrator of the crime in the coming week.

Speaking to a private news channel the victim, Khadija Siddiqui said that she was stabbed 23 times by Shah Hussain, the son of an influential advocate in Lahore.

The 22-year-old had gone out to pick her seven-year-old sister when Mr Hussain attacked her. The suspect was arrested and sent behind bars. However, the perpetrator was granted post-arrest bail by a sessions court after two months of incarceration.

“I don’t understand how you can attack someone in front of their younger sister with the intent to murder. Yet in this society, there is no accountability,” she lamented.

Speaking of how her attacker escaped justice she said, “The judges get scared, the lawyers have so much influence that the judges are forced to give an incorrect verdict and those who have the power to do so, pressure the courts so much that the victim is forced to give up.”

Despite the hurdles, Ms Khadija said that she would fight the injustice with even more resilience, “If I give up, the avenues will open up for others to engage in such violence with ease”.

The 22-year-old appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar to take notice of the matter and review the sessions court’s decision to grant bail to the assailant. “When there is so much evidence available against him… then why is the judiciary supporting a lawyer’s son? I appeal to those who have mothers and daughters to raise their voice and I also appeal to the chief justice to hear my plea,” she said. “The current CJP is an honourable and honest person and I hope he will take up my petition and look into the evidence,” she added.