By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: Police in Lahore have arrested one of three men suspected of drugging and gang-raping a 20-year-old Azerbaijani woman, after a medical examination confirmed she had been sexually assaulted.
Officers said raids were under way on Monday to find the two other suspects, who fled Lahore soon after the alleged attack overnight on Friday 25 September. Their names have been placed on a stop list to prevent them leaving the country, and police have asked federal authorities to add them to the Provisional National Identification List, a watchlist used to stop named people travelling abroad. A police official said one of the men had been traced to the city of Sialkot.
The arrested man, identified by police as Mohsin, was detained on Sunday in an upmarket area of the city. Syed Zeeshan Raza, the deputy inspector general of police for investigation, said the “sexual act has been established as per the medical report”. He said a finding of gang rape would depend on results from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency, which examines evidence for criminal investigations. The examination recorded pressure marks on the woman’s shoulder and an injury to her knee, and that DNA samples were collected. The report states that the marks support the allegation of rape.
The woman, who was visiting Pakistan for business, told police that two women took her to a cafe in the Defence area at about 11pm on Friday, where three men who were acquaintances of the women were already present. According to the first information report (FIR), the group then took her to a flat, where she was given a drink containing an intoxicating substance. The suspects allegedly sexually assaulted her throughout the night. By her account, she lost consciousness. The men left her near the airport, police said, and took two of her mobile phones. She borrowed a phone from a passer-by to contact police.
A case against three unidentified men was registered at Defence C police station on Saturday, and police said on Sunday they had identified all three. Local media reports have named two of them as Mohsin and Tanveer.
The alleged attack is the second reported gang rape of foreign nationals within the jurisdiction of Defence C police station in four months. In the earlier case, two women, from the Netherlands and Venezuela, were allegedly abducted and gang-raped in Lahore on 29 June. According to the FIR, the five suspects demanded a ransom and sexually assaulted them during their captivity. Police were alerted by a call from Spain made by the father of one of the women. Police arrested eight suspects, including Muhammad Raza Dar, a relative of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar. The case is before the courts.
Reports differ on how many people are in custody on suspicion of helping the men. A police official said two close relatives and a domestic servant of one of the suspects had been taken into custody. Police in Shahdara had detained six more people, described as close friends of the prime suspects, and handed them to Defence C police, where investigators are questioning them. Investigators are also examining the role of the two women who took her to the cafe.
A vehicle allegedly used in the attack was recovered from the house of a relative of the main suspect, who had also fled. Police have obtained data from the Punjab Safe City Authority, and images said to show the suspects outside a market in the Defence area. Faisal Kamran, the deputy inspector general for operations, said the case was being investigated jointly by the Crime Control Department and the operations and investigation wings of the force, with Asim Iftikhar, the superintendent of police for investigation in Cantt division, leading the teams. Raza has said everyone involved would face legal action without discrimination.
On Monday the woman was brought to the Cantonment Courts under tight security and recorded a statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Sagheer. The magistrate ordered everyone not connected to the proceedings to leave the courtroom, and the statement continued for more than an hour.
Police have also set out the woman’s travel history. They said she first arrived in Lahore from Tashkent on 4 March and left for Baku on 20 March, returned on 22 May, and arrived for a third time around 15 days ago. She was in Pakistan in connection with a clothing business, police said, and travelled regularly between Lahore and Faisalabad for work.
Sexual violence cases have drawn scrutiny in Pakistan over low conviction rates. A civil society review of police data recorded 5,339 reported rape cases nationwide in 2024 and put the conviction rate for that year at 0.5 percent.
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