Woman r*ped by conductor on Karachi-bound bus

Islamabad, July 4: A woman was r*ped by the conductor of a private bus during her travel from Bhakkar to Karachi, media reports said. Jampur police have registered a rape case and arrested the suspect, Dawn reported.

According to the FIR registered on a complaint by the woman, a resident of Punjgraeen in Bhakkar district, she was travelling to Karachi by a bus of Adil Shah Company when the vehicle stopped at a hotel for passengers' refreshments. She was sleeping when other passengers got off the bus. The conductor found her alone in the bus and raped her.

On receiving a call on the emergency number, Jampur police reached a roadside hotel near Jampur where Karach-bound buses stop for a halt. The police inspected the bus and recorded the statements of the woman as well as eyewitnesses. They arrested the suspect who was later identified as a resident of Muzaffargarh.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken notice of the incident and directed the Punjab IGP and the additional IG to furnish a report on the incident within 24 hours.

It's not a rare incident in which a woman has been subjected to rape during travel. On June 30, a woman was gang-raped by two train guards when she was travelling on a Rawalpindi-bound train. She had disembarked from the train in Faisalabad, Dawn reported.

In an earlier incident, a 25-year-old woman was gang-raped by the staffers of a Karachi-bound train on the intervening night of May 27 and May 28. Five suspects were arrested in the case.