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A woman polio worker, who was sexually assaulted in a village near Jacobabad, was declared ‘Kari’ by her husband after he drove her out of their home and snatched their three children from her on Saturday.

The woman had testified in court last week that she was assaulted while on duty.

The victim’s team of lawyers submitted a petition to the local court for the recovery of her children and they were reunited with her mother on the intervention of the court.

Polio worker’s statement

The polio worker talked too local journalists after the reunion and said that on Wednesday she was abducted at gunpoint when she was returning home after administering polio drops to children in the last house on her list along with her team head.

The team head was threatened to not follow them or he will be killed.

She said that the suspect took her into a jungle on the edge of the village where three other men with covered faces were already present. One of them filmed her while the suspect sexually assaulted her, she stated.

She said that the suspect also tortured her, the marks of which are still present on her body. “After the assault, he let me go. I came back to the village but no villager provided me refuge,” she stated.

She said that she could only identify the suspect, who was now in police custody, but she could not identify his three accomplices as their faces were completely covered.

She told journalists that her husband expelled her out of the house and snatched their three daughters from her, who have now reunited with her on the intervention of the court.

“We are a very low-income family. I work as polio worker and my husband earns his livelihood as transporter of small goods through his hand-cart,” she said.

She appealed to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to help provide her justice as her life is ruined after the assault.

The victim’s counsel criticised police and district administration for not ensuring the writ of the government. They also asserted that sections of Anti-Terrorism Act should be incorporated in the FIR because harassing a polio worker is tantamount to terrorism as they work for the safety of the children.
The lawyer appealed to the government and social welfare organisations to provide the polio worker a government job so that she could raise her children well as it was not her fault that she had been sexually assaulted at gunpoint.

Suspect produced in court

The police produced the suspect in the court where judicial magistrate, Nisar Ahmed Shar, remanded him in police custody for seven days.

The judge ordered police to take samples from the suspect and submit a medical report to the court whenever it was released.

Dawn’s sources said PPP MPA Sher Mohammad Mugheri demanded that the district administration arrest all the remaining suspects in the case and promised to financially support the victim every month until she got a government job.

To read more: Polio worker gives harrowing testimony of being raped on duty

A polio worker testified before a Jacobabad court on Friday that she was raped while on duty, after medical reports suggested that the crime potentially did take place.

Jacobabad Deputy Commissioner Zahoor Murri also confirmed that the polio worker was allegedly raped on Wednesday in a nearby village. The DC added that police arrived at the scene of the incident and transferred the victim to a hospital under tight security, where a medicolegal examination was conducted.

A day after the incident, the victim told the media that she was robbed of her phone and valuables. At the same time, she dismissed allegations of sexual assault.

She asserted that when she was returning home after administering polio drops to children at the last house on her list when a man robbed her of her mobile phone and money at gunpoint and escaped. “I was so traumatised and my heart was beating so fast that my team leader immediately took me to Jacobabad Institute of Medical Science,” she had said.

However, on Friday, Jacobabad District and Sessions Judge Syed Sharafuddin Shah presided over a hearing where the victim retracted her old statement and testified that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint three days ago while she was on duty in the village.

She also appealed to the judge to allow her to go to her parents’ home, whereupon the court ordered the police to escort her there.

A District Health Officer report submitted in the court also suggested that the polio worker “might have been sexually assaulted”.

On the other hand, the court rejected the police report submitted by the local police, observing that it was incomplete. The judge ordered the police to submit a complete report by the next hearing on September 23.

The court ordered the police to submit a “transparent” report “on [the] basis of ocular and medical evidence”.

Additionally, the DHO was ordered to submit five years’ worth of records for the polio worker before the court adjourned until the next hearing on September 23.

After the hearing, the victim’s lawyers held a press conference where they alleged that the police wanted to “spoil the case as they had submitted an incomplete report before the court”.

The lawyers also alleged that the polio worker had been pressured to give a different statement while in police custody, adding that influential people wanted to protect the suspect as he belonged to the powerful Jakhrani clan.

On the other hand, local police stated that they ensured the safety of the victim and confirmed that the polio worker was assaulted but she could not give a statement as she was traumatized by the incident.