The woman had been offered a job at a factory and was told to go to the workplace to meet with the manager on February 20. Instead, when she arrived, two of the suspects took her to a second location by motorbike. There, she was locked in a room and raped by the assailants for two days.
The woman was eventually released but remains in critical condition. The suspects had also warned her not to go to police.
The First Information Report (FIR) stated that the suspects filmed their brutal crime on a mobile phone. Police were tracking the culprits' locations through mobile phone data.
The incident highlights the many risks Pakistani women face in the workplace, sometimes before they even get the job. Female labour participation in the formal sector in Pakistan is low, at just 25 per cent. In urban areas, the female labour force participation is even lower at around 10 per cent, one of the lowest rates in the world. The Asian Development Bank lists restrictions to physical mobility outside the home; social, cultural and religious norms; and safety and crime as some of the reasons women do not avail employment outside of the home or farm.