Pakistan: 21-year-old Afghan woman gang-raped in refugee camp

Peshawar: In a horrific incident, a 21-year-old Afghan woman was allegedly gang-raped by five men in a refugee camp set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Haripur city, the local media reported on Saturday.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), the victim was on her way to Camp-16 for work when five men forcibly dragged her into nearby fields and raped her for two hours.

“The FIR further stated that the perpetrators also snatched Rs3,000 in cash and a gold nose pin from the victim. She identified the suspects as Bacha, Nadi, Rozi Khan, Javed, and Naseer. The complaint added that when she tried to resist, the men physically assaulted her, leaving her injured,” Pakistan’s leading newspaper The Express Tribune reported on Saturday.

“The Khalabat police have booked all five suspects under Section 375A of the Pakistan Penal Code, which states that when rape is committed by two or more persons in furtherance of the common intention of all, each of such persons shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life,” the report added.

The newspaper detailed that the incident has sparked outrage among local residents, while the victim’s family has demanded exemplary punishment for the culprits.

Interestingly, Pakistan has designated Haripur, Rawalpindi, Attock, Islamabad and Murree as “safe zones” amidst the ongoing crackdown on vulnerable Afghan refugees who are being repatriated forcibly.

According to the UN refugee agency, since April, more than 483,700 Afghans have returned from Pakistan to Afghanistan, including 145,200 in August alone, with some 55,000 making the journey in just the final four days of the month.

Since April 1, some 57,300 individuals have been arrested and detained, including PoR cardholders. In August alone, some 9,000 arrests were recorded, compared to some 3,400 in the entire month of July.

A UN document detailed that, as of September 4, at least 531,700 Afghans have returned from Pakistan in 2025.

IANS