Islamabad, Sep 8 (IANS) : As many as six women were allegedly raped, while three young girls, including a mentally challenged 15-year-old, were sexually assaulted in different places in Pakistan’s Punjab province. All the incidents occurred in Lahore in the past few days, despite Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s repeated claims of a zero-tolerance policy against gender-based violence, local media reported.
In one shocking incident, the suspect took a mentally challenged girl to a deserted place, where he allegedly raped her. In another incident, a woman in Hanjarwal said that her former husband forcefully entered her house and allegedly raped her. She alleged that the suspect physically assaulted her when she resisted and threatened her against reporting the incident to police, leading Pakistani daily Dawn reported.
Another woman said that a cab driver told her about a job opportunity with a good salary package at a factory. A few days later, the driver contacted the woman and told her to come to a place in Kahna to share details about the job. When she reached the location, the cab driver and his friend gang-raped her and also made a video of the gang rape and committed the crime again through blackmail.
A woman from Johar Town filed a complaint with the police, where she alleged that a man established physical relations with her on the promise that he would get married to her but refused to do so after she got pregnant.
Nishtar Colony police registered a rape case against a suspect who sexually assaulted a woman several times. Similarly, Shahdara Town police registered a case after a woman complained that a man raped her several times.
In July, Sahil’s Six Months Cruel Numbers Report revealed that 3,172 cases of gender-based violence were reported in Pakistan in the first six months of 2026, including 18 cases involving transgender persons.
According to the report, 644 murders, 514 cases of torture, 462 abductions, 363 suicides, 280 rapes, 175 injuries, 132 honour killings, and 21 other crimes, including harassment, gang rape and pornography cases were reported in Pakistan in the first six months of 2026, Dawn reported.
As per the report, 334 victims were in the age group 21-30 years while 306 victims were aged between 11-20 years and 120 victims were aged between 31-40 years. The ages of victims were not included in 71 per cent of the cases.
The six-month report is based on information gathered from national and regional newspapers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan.
According to the report, 27 per cent of the perpetrators were acquaintances of the victims, 24 per cent were strangers, and 13 per cent were husbands, while the perpetrators were not mentioned in 20 per cent of the cases, Dawn reported.
The report documented that 54 per cent of the incidents took place in the victims’ homes, while 12 per cent occurred at the residence of the perpetrator, Dawn reported. The report revealed that 74 per cent of the total cases were reported in Punjab, 17 per cent in Sindh, six per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while three per cent were in Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory, PoK and PoGB combined.
