QUETTA: Police in the Pakistani city of Quetta said this week they were investigating a group of men involved in the rape and blackmail of at least three teenaged girls in a case that has caused a backlash on social media and protests over growing violence against women in the South Asian nation.
Sexual violence against women has become a major issue in Pakistan, particularly since last year’s motorway gang-rape of a woman in front of her children that prompted tough new laws. But implementation has been poor and the attacks have shown no signs of let-up.
A woman holds a placard at a protest in Quetta, Pakistan, on December 11, 2021 (Photo Courtesy: Huma Foladi)
The latest case was highlighted when a man named Hidayat Khilji uploaded a graphic video of two sisters, aged 16 and 19, after they refused to continue to meet him earlier this month. By that point, Hidayat and at least two accomplices had been raping and blackmailing the girls for over two years, according to a police report filed by the survivors’ mother Fozia Bibi on December 2. Hidayat and his brother Khalil were arrested within 24 hours of the police report being filed while their cousin Shani Khilji is on the run.
The uploaded videos went viral on social media and a rights activist, Professor Abida Haidri, identified the girls’ family and encouraged them to seek police help against the suspects. After arresting Hidayat and Khalil, police also confiscated their laptops, cell phones and computers. The Inspector General of Police in Balochistan subsequently constituted a Senior Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.
“Police arrested the main culprits in the video scandal on the next day of the FIR [police report] while the hunt for the third accused is ongoing,” Station House Officer (SHO) at the Quaid Abad Police Station, Muhammad Ejaz, told Arab News.
People participate in a protest in Quetta, Pakistan, on December 11, 2021. (Photo Courtesy: Huma Foladi)
“We have collected the DNA samples of Hidayat Khilji and Khalil Khilji which have been sent to the Punjab Forensic Lab while material obtained from their cell phones and laptop is being decoded and investigated with the help of the Federal Investigation Agency's cybercrime wing.”
He said the two sisters as well as their mother had fled to Afghanistan since the filing of the case and their last location that police were able to trace was Kabul. He said authorities at the federal and provincial levels were in contact with Afghan counterparts to allow them access to the family.
A third survivor, 17, who is still believed to be in Quetta, also lodged a police complaint against the Khiljis on December 6. All three girls belong to Pakistan's Hazara Shia minority group which has also been frequently targeted by Taliban and Daesh militants and other groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Arab News could not reach the third survivor for comment but the police report filed by her said she had been looking for a job and was told by a friend to visit a house on Quetta's Nichat Road two years ago “where the accused Hidayat Khilji started torturing me and later striped my clothes off and recorded my nude video.”
Hidayat warned her, the girl said in the police report, to show up whenever he called: “One day I refused to meet him and he uploaded my nude videos using a fake social media account.”
A woman protester carries the picture of rape and blackmail accused Hidayat Khilji at a demonstration outside the Quetta Press Club in Quetta, Pakistan, on December 11, 2021 (Photo Courtesy: Huma Foladi)
The videos, widely shared on social media, have since triggered an online backlash as well as protests in Quetta. Last week, a group of women staged a demonstration in the provincial capital demanding a fair investigation and justice for the teenagers.
Less than 3% of sexual assault or rape cases result in a conviction in Pakistan, according to the Karachi-based War Against Raoe (WAR) group. Pakistani women rarely speak out after violent assault or rape, fearing the shame it will bring on them and their families in the conservative Muslim country.
Human rights defender Huma Foladi, who organized a rally in solidarity, said she feared the Khiljis had more victims who were afraid to come forward due to social taboos.
“Unfortunately, we have laws giving immense protection to women in cases related to sexual harassment but due to lack of implementation there is a mistrust between the state and the general masses,” she told Arab News.
Haidri, the social activist who brought the case to the notice of the two sisters' parents and eventually police police, said she hoped there would be a fair investigation.
“I believe that there will be more women who were brutally tortured and sexually abused by Hidayat Khilji and other culprits but unfortunately tribal and cultural norms in our society discourage women from speaking up,” she said.
Ahmed Ali Kohzad, the Secretary General of the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), suggested that the state become the prime complainant in the case to ensure that the suspects did not get off using out of court settlements common between private individuals in Pakistan.
“The accused Hidayat Khilji has been acquitted in many sexual harassment cases because of out of the court settlements,” Kohzad said, “but this time the state should set a new example by convicting the group involved in sexually abusing innocent girls in order curb these heinous practices in future.”
Arab News could not reach the Khilji brothers for comment for this story. The names of the three survivors have been withheld.
