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Doctor's rape sparks unrest in Pakistan
March 1, 2005
Karachi - When doctor Shazia Khalid was brutally raped in her lodgings near
Pakistan's largest gasfield it was not just a personal tragedy. It also sparked
a tribal revolt that threatened to destablise the whole country.
But the very public nature of the 32-year-old's plight has not made justice any
more likely and she is now determined to flee the conservative Islamic country,
she said.
"It is not possible to live here freely and be accepted by society after what
happened to me," said the doctor, who agreed to waive her right to anonymity
after her name appeared in local media.
"So maybe if we go abroad we can begin a new life, though I may not forget the
incident for the rest of my life. It is devastating, it destroyed my life, but
it was my husband and my family who gave me strength to survive."
No one took much notice when angry tribesmen first started launching rockets at
the state-run Sui gasfield in Pakistan's poor southwestern province of
Baluchistan in early January.
The clans have campaigned for increased economic and political rights for years
and have a long history of opposing government and military installations.
But this time it was different. Within days eight people were dead, thousands
of troops were rushed to the area -- and then a shadowy group called the
Baluchistan Liberation Army said it had carried out the attacks in revenge for
the rape of a doctor in a secluded township near the plant.
Outraged tribal elders accused an Army captain of the rape, while bombs and
rockets targeted railway tracks, police stations and powerlines almost every
day for a month and the violence began to spread to neighbouring provinces.
Amid fears of foreign involvement, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stepped
in, warning the rebels they would face the same fate as a 1970s rebellion in
Baluchistan which was brutally crushed.
At the eye of the storm, however, was the private agony of Doctor Shazia, as
she has become known through the often prurient coverage of the case in
Pakistan.
"It is difficult to describe that horrifying night. He stayed in my room for
over four hours. My eyes, mouth, hands were all tied up. But I can never forget
his voice," she told AFP by telephone from a safe house at an undisclosed
location in Karachi.
"I also heard the voice of another person who might have been guarding at the
gate.
"I resisted and got hurt in the process but there was little I could do. By the
time I recovered it was around six in the morning. My clothes were all covered
in blood and I was not feeling well."
The doctor went to see officials at the plant but again became a victim -- this
time of a cover-up and attempted intimidation, she said.
Officials told her she would be arrested if she went to the police, while her
blood-stained clothes disappeared after she was given tranquilisers, she added.
"My employers tried to hide the case and are responsible for letting the
culprits get away with it," she said
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