LAHORE/MURIDKE: Lahore police are pursuing two separate cases of alleged sexual violence against women in which one suspect has been arrested in each and a second suspect remains at large in both — an outcome that leaves half the accused in each file still to be traced.
A woman who came to Lahore after a domestic dispute in Muridke was allegedly abducted by a rickshaw driver and taken to the home of his friend, where police say she was chained, held hostage and subjected to alleged gang rape by two men.
According to police, the rickshaw driver abducted the woman and left her at the house of his friend Hanif before leaving. As soon as he departed, the suspect Hanif allegedly chained the woman and later summoned his friend Karim to the house. Both men are accused of subjecting her to gang rape.
Police said the woman found an opportunity to call 15, the police emergency number, and reported her situation. Acting on that call, Shalimar police arrested the suspect Hanif. A case has been registered and further investigation has begun.
Police said teams have been formed to arrest the absconding suspect Karim, and that he too would soon be arrested and brought before the law.
The detail that matters operationally here is the emergency call. The 15 helpline worked as designed — a call from a woman in confinement produced a police response and an arrest. The response is the strongest element of an otherwise grim file.
In a separate case, a friendship formed on TikTok turned into an incident of alleged rape and violence. Kot Lakhpat police arrested one suspect with the help of modern technology.
According to a police spokesperson, the suspect Shehryar had formed a friendship with a woman on TikTok. Shehryar called the woman late at night from Multan Chungi to his house in Madina Town.
Police said Shehryar left the house on some pretext, during which the suspect Sohail, who was present inside, allegedly raped the woman and also allegedly subjected her to violence.
The police spokesperson said the suspect Sohail fled the scene after the incident, while police arrested the suspect Shehryar and handed him over to the Gender Cell. A search is under way for Sohail.
Punjab Police’s Gender Crime Cells were established to route cases of violence against women through officers trained in survivor-sensitive procedure, reducing the number of times a complainant must repeat her account and improving the quality of evidence collection in the first 24 hours — the window in which medico-legal evidence is either preserved or lost.
The Kahna case belongs to a category police in Lahore encounter with increasing frequency: contact initiated on a social platform, moved to private messaging, then to a physical meeting at an address chosen by the suspect. The isolation is engineered before the offence occurs.
Police in Lahore have been examining several cases with digital origins, including the investigation into the death of TikToker Arshma in Islampura, which has turned toward murder.
The province has been tightening protections for women through legislative and administrative routes in parallel, including new rules for nikah registrars aimed at curbing child marriage.
Women in immediate danger can call 15. Punjab’s women’s helpline 1043 provides guidance on legal aid, shelter and medico-legal procedure.
All suspects named in this report are accused and have not been convicted of any offence.
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