Two teenage sisters in Pakistan have been taken into custody for allegedly killing their father by setting him on fire in retaliation for rape.
The incident occurred on January 1 in the city of Gujranwala, Punjab. The father, who suffered severe burns, succumbed to his injuries on January 7.
“The girls said that they decided amongst themselves to find a ‘permanent solution,'” said Rizwan Tariq, a senior police official in the city.
The two sisters, who are step-siblings, alleged that their father had been raping the elder sister for a year and had twice tried to assault the younger one.
“We both planned to kill our father for sexually assaulting us,” the girls reportedly confessed to police.
They admitted to taking petrol from his motorcycle, pouring it over him, and setting him on fire while he slept.
It was also revealed that they tied him up with ropes before carrying out the act.
The father suffered critical burns and was rushed to the hospital, where he died nearly a week later.
One of the girls’ siblings reportedly informed the man’s sister, who contacted emergency services.
She later accused the man’s two wives of helping the teenagers by intoxicating him before the attack.
The man, who reportedly had ten children from three wives — one of whom had passed away — lived in a rented house in Gujranwala with his remaining two wives and their children, according to local media.
To protect the identities of the teenage girls, the man has not been named.
Reports about the girls’ ages vary, with some stating they are both teenagers, while others claim they are 15 and 12 years old, born to different mothers.
The mothers, both of whom were married to the man, were reportedly aware of the abuse but were unaware of their daughters’ plan for revenge.
One of the wives has been arrested, while the other is being questioned by authorities.
“We expect to present them before the court in a few days, as soon as we finish the investigation,” said Rizwan Tariq.
A Pattern of Violence
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This case is part of a trend of sex crimes in Pakistan that has ignited widespread protests.
In a separate incident in August 2024, a 28-year-old tourist reported being gang-raped for five days after being abducted.
She was later found abandoned in the streets of Islamabad, with her hands tied behind her back and her ankles bound.
The image of her bound body further fueled anger among locals and highlighted the ongoing issues surrounding gender-based violence in the country.
The woman, who alleged she was gang-raped, claimed her attackers threw her from a vehicle in Islamabad, where passersby found her and contacted the police, according to local media.
Identifying herself as a tourist from Belgium, the woman was taken to the hospital and reportedly informed authorities she had been in Pakistan for six months.
Police have since arrested one suspect and searched his apartment as part of the investigation, local outlets reported.
However, inconsistencies in the woman’s claims have emerged.
When investigators reached out to the Belgian Embassy, officials stated they had no record of her presence in Pakistan.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also confirmed there was no trace of her entering the country.
Belgian officials redirected the inquiry to the Dutch Embassy, as the woman’s hometown is reportedly near the Belgium-Netherlands border.
Despite this, local investigators suspect the woman may not be a foreign national.
The arrested suspect further complicated the case by claiming the woman was mentally unwell and did not possess any identification at the time of the incident, , according to reports.
This recent case follows a disturbing pattern of violence, echoing a 2022 incident involving an American vlogger who alleged she was gang-raped in Pakistan by her guide and an accomplice.
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The attackers reportedly recorded videos of the assault to use as blackmail.
The 21-year-old woman, who had been visiting a tourist resort in Punjab province, filed a report in July 2022, prompting Pakistani authorities to arrest two suspects.
Among those detained was the woman’s host, who allegedly took her to a hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan, where she claimed the assault occurred.
According to police, the woman had arrived in Pakistan three weeks earlier and stayed for five days at the home of one of the alleged attackers, who was reportedly acting as her guide.
Local media, including The Free Press Journal, obtained a copy of the First Information Report (FIR), in which the woman detailed the alleged assault.
“We stayed in a hotel at Fort Monroe where both suspects gang-raped me and also made a video of the act to blackmail me,” she stated in the FIR.
She later reported that one of the suspects had threatened her after she approached the police.
