On Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz called “rumors spread on social media” regarding the alleged on-campus rape of a Lahore student a “fabricated story.”
A security guard at the college who was allegedly involved in the incident was arrested last week after news of the student’s alleged rape went viral on social media.
Students mobilized on social media in response to the alleged incident and staged protests outside several city colleges. During one of the fights, conflicts broke out between the dissenters and the security group of a school. Later on, students and police got into a fight, which cost 28 people their lives.
Police expressed that while the captured safety officer was being cross examined, the casualty couldn’t be distinguished or found. No one from her family approached to enroll a first data report (FIR), the police said, adding that CCTV film of the school being referred to, along with clinic records had been checked yet no prompts could be found.
In the meantime, users claimed that a girl featured in a viral social media video had been the alleged rape victim. Lahore’s Defence A police station filed an FIR regarding the case in response to the viral video. Dawn.com has a copy of the FIR.
When approached by the police, the girl’s parents, according to the FIR, categorically denied any rape, claiming that their daughter had been hospitalized from October 2 to 11 due to an injury sustained in a fall at home. According to the FIR, the girl’s parents maintained that their daughter’s video’s virality was an intentional attempt to harm her reputation.
The chief minister addressed the issue today at a press conference in Lahore, stating that an incident that “never existed in the first place” became a topic of discussion.
CM Maryam stated, “The alleged rape incident was a fabricated story with no basis in reality.” In the viral video, the girl is not the victim of rape; rather, she is the victim of bad politics and a conspiracy.
