Three men accused of gang raping women on moving train in Pakistan

Three men are accused of gang-raping a young woman on a moving train in Pakistan, sparking fury in the country.

Faisal Shahkar, the police chief of the railways, said the incident took place after a ticket inspector persuaded the 25-year-old to go to an unoccupied part of the train last week.

Mr Shahkar said police had arrested two suspects on Monday, while a third individual was found on Tuesday.

The woman, who is a mother of two children, was said to be on a train making its way to Karachi, the country’s largest city, from Multan in east central Pakistan.

She was making her journey in economy class before a ticket inspector asked if she wanted to move to a part of the train which had air conditioning, according to a police report.

Dawn, Pakistan’s largest and oldest newspaper published in English, branded the alleged gang rape “a ghastly crime” as they warned women’s “safety is the barometer of a nation’s values”.

“Another horrific incident of sexual violence has come to light, underscoring how a cavalier approach to security arrangements can embolden criminally inclined men to indulge their worst instincts,” read the editorial piece published on Wednesday.

The article added: “Such incidents have serious consequences. Aside from the long-term trauma that the victim in this case is likely to suffer, women in general are left – once again – feeling ever more insecure in the public space; the message to them is that without the ‘protection’ of a man, they are easy prey.”

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Human Rights told the National Assembly more than 14,000 rape cases were reported in Pakistan during the last four years.

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Pakistan has one of the lowest rankings in the world for gender equality and the World Bank estimates almost one in three married Pakistani women report facing physical violence.

A Thomson Reuters Foundation study previously ranked Pakistan as the sixth most dangerous country for women.

Women are the victims of thousands of cases of violence against them each year which range from “honour” killings to rape, acid attacks, sexual harassment and kidnappings.