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| - Pakistani authorities arrested a suspect Monday in a gang-rape case that provoked a nationwide outcry after a police official seemed to blame the victim because she was driving at night without a male companion. Hundreds of women took to the streets in cities across Pakistan last weekend to protest after a woman was raped in front of her two children after her car ran out of fuel near the eastern city of Lahore. Punjab province Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said one of the two suspects in the case, Shafqat Ali, had been arrested. "His DNA has matched, and he has confessed to the crime", Buzdar said in a tweet. A senior police official confirmed the arrest, adding that a manhunt was ongoing for the second suspect. Following last week's incident, Lahore police chief Umar Sheikh faced an angry backlash and calls for his resignation after suggesting the rape was at least partially the victim's fault. Sheikh apologised Monday. Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan in his interview with private Pakistani TV channel 92 news said there should be fearsome punishments for the sex crimes. "There should be public hangings but unfortunately when I had a discussion about it I was told that there is no international acceptance for it, and the European Union has given us GSP status for trade and this could affect it", he said. However, he said if not public hanging there should be "chemical castration" to stop the repeat of sex crimes. Khan also hinted that obscenity on TV also leads to sex crimes. Rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens. Legal expert Osama Malik told AFP the rape conviction rate can be as low as two percent. "This drops even lower in cases where a minor has been raped. That is one of the reasons that rape is rarely reported", he said. Malik also blamed the societal stigma attached to sex crimes and the "abhorrently misogynistic attitude" of many police officials for the underreporting of rape cases. Lapses during the collection of forensic evidence and shoddy prosecutorial practices also contribute towards "abysmal" conviction rates, he added. kf-zz/wat/rma/ch
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