A third-year Christian nursing student in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi was found unconscious with a head injury near Doctors’ Backyard Mess after a Medico-Legal Officer (MLO), Dr Jabbar Memon allegedly raped her, the media reported on Wednesday. Dr Jabbar was also found with a fractured femur (hip bone) just besides the girl.

The media further reported that the initial reports have confirmed that the girl was raped by the MLO. Muslim doctor threw her from fourth floor of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center Karachi after allegedly raping her.

 The visitors of patient saw a girl in nursing uniform being thrown from fourth floor by a person in ‘white coat’ of doctors and called hospital security.

 The victim is a Christian Nurse, aged 23, belongs to a humble family background. Her condition is critical. It has been pressurized to drop the charges against the accused.  

In Pakistan, under reported cases of rape and torture of religious minority women and girls presents an ever present human rights crisis. A larger pattern of violence directed not only at Christian women, but at other religious minorities women throughout the country. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are so vaguely formulated that they encourage, and in fact invite, the persecution of religious minorities.

Religious minorities need more than just fair treatment under the law, they also require visible cooperation from the police and authorities, to halt this sort of further incidences especially related to religious discrimination, punitive action should be exemplary.