LAST month, two suspected rapists in Punjab suffered injuries of their own making while trying to escape the police. In Gujranwala, a man accused of raping two minor brothers was badly injured when his pistol accidentally went off inside his trousers. In Vehari, another suspect accused of raping a minor girl was injured in a similar manner when his gun went off as he attempted to flee arrest.

Only a few rapists suffer self-inflicted con­­sequences. That’s only a few. Last mon­th, a vi­­llage woman was drawn to Daska by the promise of a Ramazan ration package. Ins­t­e­­ad, she was lured to a nearby workshop by a man, where he and his accomplice held her at gunpoint and allegedly raped her. The suspects escaped, leaving the victim’s family to appeal to the Punjab chief minister for justice.

Disturbingly, neither incident seemed extraordinary in the news cycle. They are just additional entries in the growing tally of annual rape cases. Despite years of debate and legislation, the authorities have been unable to completely curb such a brutal assertion of power and violence, where reasoning is more obscure than for any other type of crime. In 2024, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 4,175 cases of rape and 733 of gang rape.

However, to call rape a forgotten crime........

© Dawn