News

Hundreds of nurses in Pakistan took to the streets to demand justice for a Christian nursing student who was allegedly raped and thrown from the fourth floor of a Pakistan hospital by the Muslim doctor who raped her.

Approximately 200 male and female nurses from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre suspended work for five hours in solidarity with their 23-year-old colleague, Magdalene Ashraf.

The Pakistan Nursing association described the act as brutal and demanded that action be taken against the accused, Dr. Abdul Jabbar Memom.

Miss Ashraf, a third year nursing student at the JPMC, was found by the hospital’s security after witnesses who had seen a girl wearing a nurse’s uniform being thrown from the hospital’s fourth floor by a man wearing a white coat had alerted them.

She was found unconscious with an injury to her head. Initial reports confirmed that Ashraf was raped.

The accused also received hospital treatment for broken bones after jumping from a hospital building while fleeing an angry mob.
Jabbar, who is in police custody, had previously been suspended from tenure on seven occasions and was known to drink during working hours. It is believed that he was drunk when he committed the alleged offences.

Ashraf’s father, a poor Christian man named Ashraf Masih rushed to the hospital when he learned of the incident and found his daughter unconscious and called on Christian leaders to help him.

Members of the Major Religious Superiors’ Justice and Peace Commission joined the protest on July 15 wearing black armbands.

Some of the protesters demanded Doctor Memon be hanged in public and justice for “daughters who serve the nation.”
The victim’s sister, Shehla Ashraf, told a press conference that her family was being pressurised to stop pursuing the case. However, she did not name the persons putting such pressure on the family.

Nasir Saeed of CLAAS UK said that persecution against Christians, especially women, has recently increased to an unprecedented level. Although the government has passed a Women’s protection bill, in view of the recent growth of persecution of Christians, it has proved that this law is failing to protect Christian women in Pakistan. Now that the bill has been passed, the government must ensure that it is implemented by all governmental authorities across the country.

Many Christian rape cases are not reported, especially when the rapist comes from an influential family. Most often victims are silent in fear of their own and their families’ safety.

Update on the case of Christian Nurse.

According the Pakistani news papers that Napoleon Qayyum the representative of the president of the Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has met the Christian nurse in the Jinnah hospital and have assured her on the behalf the president that justice will be done.

Government is already involved in this case but assurance from the President of Pakistan is highly appreciated by the CLAAS and hope that justice will be done with victim and perpetrators will be brought to the justice.