Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for public hangings and chemical castration of rapists as authorities reported arresting a second man in connection with the rape of a woman on a popular highway in Punjab province last week.
The woman was raped in front of her children after her car ran out of fuel on a motorway near the eastern city of Lahore.
The incident drew a number of protesters to the streets in several cities, including Islamabad and Karachi, denouncing attacks on women.
“They should be given exemplary punishments. In my opinion, they should be hanged at the chowk,” said Khan.
“The way murders are graded as first degree, second degree and third degree, rape should also be graded this way, and the first grade rapists should be castrated and incapable completely.”
Last Thursday, the police took 15 people in for questioning. On Sunday, a man was arrested but denied involvement in the crime. He remains in police custody but said he was wrongly named in the case because his sim card was being used by one of his friends, who later turned out to be one of the suspects.
On Monday, police said they arrested one of the two assailants suspected of carrying out the crime.
(Al Jazeera)
