LAHORE: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has revealed that “no credible evidence” has been found to back the widespread allegations of a student raped in Lahore’s Punjab College last month, which saw a series of violent mass protests across the province.
HRCP, in a press statement, said that a fact-finding mission was conducted jointly with AGHS Legal Aid Cell. The human rights body stated that “in the absence of forensic evidence and credible testimonies, it is not possible to conclusively establish the veracity of widespread allegations that a student was sexually assaulted at a private college in Lahore.”
The fact-finding mission revealed that a chain of events appears to have created “acute suspicion and mistrust among students at private college Campus 10”. These events include a spate of social media content making unverified claims of rape, contradictory statements by government representatives, and the delayed, ham-fisted response of the college administration to these allegations, the HRCP said in a press release.
Furthermore, it revealed that the mission found evidence of other parties who attempted to hijack the students’ narrative and use it to amplify their own outreach on social media.
“Students’ response underlines their serious dissatisfaction with the state of security on campuses and the perceived frequency of sexual harassment and victim blaming,” the mission noted.
The Human rights watchdog strongly condemned the use of “disproportionate force” against hundreds of students at Campus 10 on 14 October, who had launched a mass protest demanding ‘justice’ for the alleged victim of rape but were subjected to police violence. The students’ ire was compounded by a seeming lack of motivation on the part of campus administrations to address the issue and a deep mistrust of the police and college administration, it added.
Among other recommendations, the mission suggests conducting a forensic investigation of the CCTV footage collected on Campus 10 over the first two weeks of October and holding the police accountable for violence against student protesters as well as for detaining a person accused of the alleged offense in the absence of an FIR against him.
The mission strongly believes, however, that concerns of harassment and sexual violence on campus must always be taken seriously and effective anti-harassment committees instituted on all campuses that can be accessed easily by students while respecting their right to confidentiality.
