An American tourist was gang-raped in a hotel while visiting a tourist resort in the eastern province of Punjab, Pakistan.
The Associated Press quoted Pakistani officials as confirming that the security forces had arrested two people, accusing them of raping a 21-year-old American woman, Al-Ain news website reported.
She revealed that among those arrested was the woman’s host, who took her to a hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan, a district in Punjab province, where she said she was sexually assaulted this week, according to a preliminary police investigation. The woman arrived in Pakistan three weeks ago, according to police.
Police say they are still investigating how the woman was lured and taken to a hotel by the two men accused of raping her, noting that she had earlier stayed at the home of one of the alleged attackers for five days.
The US embassy in Islamabad told The Associated Press that its consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore is ready to provide consular services to the victim.
The young woman, a vlogger, told police that she was gang-raped by two men who filmed the assault and used it to blackmail her. “We stayed in a hotel in Fort Monroe where they raped me and they videotaped my extortion,” she explained.
Although sexual abuse of Pakistani women is common, such crimes against foreigners are rare in Pakistan.
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Many Pakistani women avoid reporting such incidents to avoid stigma in a society where rapists often escape justice due to flaws in the legal system and poor police investigations.
