Pakistan is a difficult country to figure out. Especially for those of the Western mindset of what is considered just the very basics of right and wrong.
One recent example would be of a fuel truck that overturned on one of Pakistan’s more decrepid excuses for a highway.
With no Arnold Schwarzenegger-like Hollywood explosion, suffice it to say that thousands of gallons of gasoline were literally leaking everywhere from the ruptured fuel container.
As Pakistan is a contradiction, it being a poverty-stricken nation with a nuclear arsenal, local villagers flocked to the scene with pots, pans and everything in-between to snatch-up every possible drop of the scarce commodity. Here comes the “what the hell were they thinking?” moment.
A slew of scavengers decided that while gas fumes filled the air and while huge pools of gasoline formed on the asphalt, that was a good time to visit Marlboro Country. Two hundred roasted to death Pakistanis later…
In a nation that routinely “honor kills” young girls and women; in a nation that routinely imprisons Christians in the flimsiest evidence of “blasphemy”; in a nation that routinely claims to be foremost in the war on terror, yet provided sanctuary to Usama Bin Laden; Pakistan continues to befuddle as to why they as a nation have one foot in the 21st century, the other in the 7th.
The latest head-scratcher would be the case of tribal elders in the Kashmiri town of Muzaffarabad. Hold onto your hats – the village honchos just sentenced a teen-aged girl to be… wait for it… legally gang-raped because… wait for it… her brother raped a 12-year-old from a differing tribe.
As reported by Grace Carr of The Daily Caller;
Village elders in Pakistan ordered a 17-year-old girl to be raped as retribution after her brother was accused of raping another 12-year-old girl, media reported Thursday.
The 12-year-old told her mother she was raped while cutting the grass, and her mother then reported the crime to the village elders, reports CNN. The elders determined that a fitting punishment would be to rape the eldest sister of the male perpetrator of the crime.
“Her mothers and sisters all protested this but the elders brought out their guns and threatened to kill them,” the police report said.
Police arrested 20 people in the southern town of Muzaffarabad after two alleged assaults. Muzaffarabad Station House officer Rashid Faheem said investigations are ongoing, and he added that he expects more raids.
Don’t forget, folks – this is a nation that has ballistic missiles, nuclear warheads, and the same ones who put the Taliban in power in Afghanistan not that many years ago.
But as reporter Carr also correctly cited;
It’s not unusual to punish family members with rape in Pakistan. In 2002, a tribal court ordered a woman to be gang raped after her brother was accused of having sex with a woman from another tribe.
