LAHORE, Pakistan, Oct 16 (AP) \u2014 More than two dozen college students were injured in clashes with Pakistani police over reports of an on-campus rape of a young woman, officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The students were hurt on Monday and Tuesday in the eastern city of Lahore in Punjab province after reports about the alleged rape spread on social media.<\/p>\n
Students initially protested on the campus of the private college but later gathered outside the provincial assembly, where they clashed with police.<\/p>\n
The college administration denied there was an assault, as did the young woman\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n
Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan but is underreported because of the stigma attached to it in the conservative country. Protests about sexual violence against women are uncommon.<\/p>\n
A special committee formed by the provincial government said the alleged victim said she slipped at her home on Oct. 2 and was taken to a hospital, where she was treated until Oct. 11. It said the student was absent from college from Oct. 3 to 15.<\/p>\n
The Federal Investigation Agency said it was looking into the case, including identifying people who spread the reports on social media.<\/p>\n
Punjab\u2019s chief minister, the province\u2019s most senior official, said no rape had taken place.<\/p>\n
Maryam Nawaz, who is the niece of the current prime minister and daughter of a former prime minister, asserted that a vile and dangerous plan was hatched to mislead students.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAn incident happened and a security guard was arrested and accused of being involved,\u201d Nawaz told a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Sustainable Social Development Organization said last month that there were 7,010 rape cases reported in Pakistan in 2023, almost 95% of them in Punjab.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, due to social stigmas in Pakistan that discourage women from getting help, there is a high chance that due to underreporting the actual number of cases may be even higher,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s protests came less than a month after a woman said she was gang-raped when on duty during a polio vaccination drive in southern Sindh province.<\/p>\n
Police arrested three men. Her husband threw her out of the house after the reported assault, saying she had tarnished the family name.<\/p>\n
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LAHORE, Pakistan, Oct 16 (AP) \u2014 More than two dozen college students were injured in clashes with Pakistani police over reports of an on-campus rape of a young woman, officials said Wednesday. The students were hurt on Monday and Tuesday in the eastern city of Lahore in Punjab province after reports about the alleged rape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-250506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}