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Arab News
08-07-2025
- Arab News
Police probe ‘serious' sexual assault on teen wife in Karachi, husband in custody
KARACHI: A 19-year-old woman from the southern Pakistani city of Karachi is in a coma after allegedly being subjected to sexual violence by her husband, police and medical officials confirmed on Tuesday, in a case that has renewed focus on the country's ongoing crisis of gender-based violence. Police arrested the suspect, identified only as Ashok, after the victim's family lodged a complaint under Sections 324 and 376B of the Pakistan Penal Code, which deal with attempted murder and rape. The assault allegedly took place just days after the couple were married on June 15. 'The victim, a 19-year-old from Lyari [neighborhood], is now in a coma. Her physical examination findings are consistent with sexual violence,' Dr. Summaiya Syed, Police Surgeon Karachi, told Arab News, adding that such incidents were 'tragically frequent.' 'Circumstances vary and names change, but violence remains,' she said. According to the police complaint, the woman's condition deteriorated following a series of violent assaults by her husband. She was first taken to a local hospital by her in-laws and later shifted to Karachi's Civil Hospital, where she remains in intensive care. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Arif Aziz said the suspect was arrested promptly after the incident was reported. 'This brutal sexual assault is a grave and serious offense, and the police are treating it with utmost urgency and priority to ensure the perpetrator is held accountable,' he said. 'We are committed to preventing such incidents in the future through firm and effective action.' The case has drawn renewed attention to widespread violence against women in Pakistan, where incidents of domestic abuse, rape, and honor-based crimes remain pervasive. According to a March report by the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO), over 32,617 gender-based violence cases were recorded nationwide in the first part of 2024 alone, including 5,339 cases of rape. Despite the scale of the crisis, conviction rates remain dismally low. Prosecutions for rape and so-called 'honor killings' result in a conviction in just 0.5 percent of cases, according to SSDO. Activists cite underreporting, entrenched stigma, patriarchal attitudes and weak enforcement mechanisms as key reasons for the lack of justice. 'This case is horrifying, but sadly not isolated,' said Mehnaz Rehman, former Resident Director of the Aurat Foundation and a long-time women's rights activist. 'Without accountability, these crimes will continue.' Over the years, several high-profile rape and assault cases have sparked public outrage in Pakistan, including the 2020 gang rape of a woman on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway in front of her children, and the 2018 rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur. While both cases led to convictions, activists say such outcomes remain rare and systemic reform is still lacking. Qurat Mirza, a founding member of Aurat March, said that victims of sexual assault or rape are often subjected to shame and social stigma, which discourages them from reporting such cases. 'Had this girl not fallen into a coma, this incident may never have come to light either,' she said, adding that while laws exist in Sindh province, the corresponding rules of business have yet to be formulated. Urging the government to demonstrate political will by implementing existing laws and pursuing judicial reforms, Mirza said women would continue to speak out. 'Resilience and resistance are our only solutions,' she said. 'We will continue to condemn injustice, raise our voices in protest, and create awareness until women are truly protected.' The Karachi case remains under investigation.
Arab News
07-07-2025
- General
- Arab News
Survivors grieve, worry about future after deadly building collapse in Pakistan
KARACHI: Survivors of a building collapse that killed 27 people in the Pakistani city of Karachi were trying on Monday to come to terms with the loss of loved ones and their homes. The five-story building collapsed on Friday in the overcrowded inner-city Lyari district where many working-class and poor families live in aging apartment blocks. The site is now a tangle of twisted metal, shattered concrete and scattered belongings, schoolbooks, shoes and sewing machines. On Monday, rescue officials said the death toll had reached 27 and dozens of people were being housed in makeshift shelters following the building's collapse and the evacuation of nearby buildings over structural fears. 'I grew up in that building. I knew everyone who lived there,' said Imdad Hussain, 28, a fisherman who lost neighbors, childhood friends and seven members of his extended family. He is now sheltering with relatives, and family members are in mourning as they try to figure out what the future holds. 'We've lost our home, our people. I don't know how we'll start again,' he said. Officials in Karachi, the capital of the southeastern province of Sindh, said the building had received multiple evacuation notices since 2023, including a final one in late June. Saeed Ghani, Provincial Minister of Sindh for Local Governments, said the Karachi commissioner — who oversees the city administration — had been tasked with inspecting 51 buildings identified as 'extremely dangerous' to prevent similar collapses. BUILDING SHOOK VIOLENTLY Residents said the building in Lyari, which has been home to generations of working-class families from minority and migrant backgrounds, shook violently on Friday before collapsing in a cloud of dust. Rescue workers had been digging through the debris since Friday but declared the search over late on Sunday. They said about 100 residents from 12 families had been living in the building, and nearly 50 more families had been displaced after three neighboring buildings were declared unsafe and evacuated. Lakshmi, a school janitor who lived next door to the collapsed building, said her sister had lived in the building that came down and called moments before it fell to say it was shaking. Her sister survived, but Lakshmi feared losing the gold she had left with her for safekeeping before her daughter's wedding. 'We got out with our lives, but everything else is gone, with no certainty about what is to come,' Lakshmi said.
Reuters
07-07-2025
- General
- Reuters
Survivors grieve, worry about future after deadly building collapse in Pakistan
KARACHI, July 7 (Reuters) - Survivors of a building collapse that killed 27 people in the Pakistani city of Karachi were trying on Monday to come to terms with the loss of loved ones and their homes. The five-storey building collapsed on Friday in the overcrowded inner-city Lyari district where many working-class and poor families live in ageing apartment blocks. The site is now a tangle of twisted metal, shattered concrete and scattered belongings, schoolbooks, shoes and sewing machines. On Monday, rescue officials said the death toll had reached 27 and dozens of people were being housed in makeshift shelters following the building's collapse and the evacuation of nearby buildings over structural fears. "I grew up in that building. I knew everyone who lived there," said Imdad Hussain, 28, a fisherman who lost neighbours, childhood friends and seven members of his extended family. He is now sheltering with relatives, and family members are in mourning as they try to figure out what the future holds. "We've lost our home, our people. I don't know how we'll start again," he said. Officials in Karachi, the capital of the southeastern province of Sindh, said the building had received multiple evacuation notices since 2023, including a final one in late June. Saeed Ghani, Provincial Minister of Sindh for Local Governments, said the Karachi commissioner - who oversees the city administration - had been tasked with inspecting 51 buildings identified as "extremely dangerous" to prevent similar collapses. Residents said the building in Lyari, which has been home to generations of working-class families from minority and migrant backgrounds, shook violently on Friday before collapsing in a cloud of dust. Rescue workers had been digging through the debris since Friday but declared the search over late on Sunday. They said about 100 residents from 12 families had been living in the building, and nearly 50 more families had been displaced after three neighbouring buildings were declared unsafe and evacuated. Lakshmi, a school janitor who lived next door to the collapsed building, said her sister had lived in the building that came down and called moments before it fell to say it was shaking. Her sister survived, but Lakshmi feared losing the gold she had left with her for safekeeping before her daughter's wedding. "We got out with our lives, but everything else is gone, with no certainty about what is to come," Lakshmi said.
Arab News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Sindh building authority chief suspended as 27 dead in Karachi building collapse
ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan's southern province of Sindh said on Monday the director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) had been suspended after a residential building collapsed in the provincial capital of Karachi last week, killing 27 people. The suspension comes as part of a broader crackdown ordered by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who has also directed the registration of a police case (FIR) and promised 'ruthless action' against those responsible for the collapse. The five-story apartment block in the neighborhood of Lyari crumbled on Friday morning, with residents reporting ominous cracking sounds moments before it came down. Rescue operations concluded on Sunday after three days of digging through debris. Authorities had previously said the building had been declared unsafe, and eviction notices were issued between 2022 and 2024. However, some landlords and residents told media they had never received any such notices. 'The chief minister today suspended the DG Sindh Building Control Authority,' Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said at a press briefing on Monday, referring to Muhammad Ishaque Khuhro who was appointed in February this year. 'Whichever building control authority personnel were involved in this, who had direct responsibility, they were suspended by the local government minister on the first day.' Memon added that the chief minister had ordered the home minister to immediately register an FIR, adding: 'Whoever is involved in this, strict action should be taken.' He said a fact-finding report had been ordered and must be submitted within two days. An initial committee had already been formed, but its scope had now been expanded to include the Karachi commissioner and other senior officials. 'As soon as the committee submits its report, ruthless action will be taken,' Memon said. Building collapses are common in Pakistan due to poor construction practices, aging infrastructure and lax enforcement of regulations. Karachi, a city of more than 20 million, is especially vulnerable due to unregulated urban sprawl and widespread illegal construction.
Malay Mail
07-07-2025
- Malay Mail
Pakistan pulls 27 bodies from collapsed Karachi apartment, rescue ops conclude
KARACHI, July 7 — Pakistan rescuers have concluded a three day-long rescue operation, recovering 27 bodies from a building that collapsed in the mega port city of Karachi, officials said today. Residents reported hearing cracking sounds shortly before the apartment block crumbled around 10:00 am on Friday in Karachi's impoverished Lyari neighbourhood, which was once plagued by gang violence and considered one of the most dangerous areas in Pakistan. 'All the bodies trapped under the debris have been recovered, so the search operation has been called off,' the top government official in the district, Javed Nabi Khoso, told AFP. 'The total death toll stands at 27 people.' Authorities said the building had been declared unsafe and eviction notices were sent to occupants between 2022 and 2024, but landlords and some residents told AFP they had not received them. Twenty of the victims were Hindus, according to Sundeep Maheshewari, an activist in the minority community. 'Most of the families are very poor,' he told AFP. Government official Khoso said that five out of more than 50 more dangerous buildings in his district have been evacuated since Saturday. 'The operation has been initiated and will continue until all such buildings are evacuated,' he said. Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan, mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of more than 240 million people. But Karachi, home to more than 20 million, is especially notorious for poor construction, illegal extensions, ageing infrastructure, overcrowding, and lax enforcement of building regulations. — AFP
