Pakistan gang-rape victim sees threat to her life

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani victim of gang-rape said on Saturday that her life was in danger after the acquittal of five of the six men that she accused.

In a surprise decision on Thursday, a high court in the central city of Multan struck down a lower court decision which found the men guilty of raping Mukhtaran Mai, 30, on the orders of a village council in July 2002.

The High Court commuted the death sentence of a sixth man to life in prison in an appeal hearing in which the men pleaded not guilty. The High Court acquitted the men on lack of evidence.

Mai said that she was "pained" at the court decision.

"There are all kinds of dangers for me now," Mai told a news conference in the capital Islamabad.

"They can kill me. They are a threat for my family ... I appeal to the government not to free them."

Mai was raped on the orders of a village council which wanted to avenge the alleged relations of her brother with a woman belonging to the superior Mastoi tribe. Mai's brother was also kidnapped and sodomised by Mastoi men.

The Thursday's court decision once again brought into focus Mai's case which shocked the country and raised an international outcry over the treatment of women in this Islamic nation of around 150 million people.

Gang rapes and honour killings of women are common in Pakistan's tribal and feudal dominated rural areas.

In most of the cases the rapist and killers go free because of the poor standard of police investigations and flaws in the country's legal system.

Mai said that she would continue to fight for justice despite the acquittal of the convicts.

"God willing, I will appeal in the Supreme Court. I hope I will get justice there," she said in her native Saraiki language. "There is another court. And that is the court of Allah ... I will definitely get justice from Him."

There has been no official comment on the case, but local newspapers and human rights groups said the acquittal showed lack of commitment by the government to curb crimes against women.

"This is a sad day for Pakistan," said prominent English-language newspaper Daily Times in its front-page editorial on Saturday.

"This is not a case in which a woman has been raped. This is a case in which a nation has been raped. That is how we should feel about it."

Despite government pledges to curb violence against women, incidents of rape and gang-rapes are on the rise in Pakistan, rights groups say.

The private Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in a report that 320 women were raped and 350 were gang-raped in the first 10 months of 2004.

"We believe one of the main reasons for the increasing incidence of violence against women is the fact that persons guilty of assaulting women are hardly punished," the rights groups said in a joint statement.

President Pervez Musharraf has long been calling for stringent steps to curb crimes against women, including a review of the controversial Islamic law which rights groups say is discriminatory.

But the government has failed to take any concrete measures because of stiff opposition from Islamic parties and powerful feudal politicians.

- REUTERS