Pakistan Deputy PM Ishaq Dar's grandson, seven others indicted in Lahore gang rape case

A Pakistani court has indicted eight suspects, including the grandson of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, in a gang rape of two foreign women, an official said on Wednesday (November 11, 2026). "Lahore's Additional District & Sessions Judge (AD&SJ) Rafaqat Ali Gondal on Tuesday (November 10) framed charges against the suspects who pleaded not guilty," a court official said and added the judge directed the prosecution to present its witnesses on December 9 so that the formal trial proceedings could be commenced.

All the suspects, presently in judicial custody, were produced before the trial court for the indictment proceedings. Ironically, Punjab police had already given a "clean chit" to Ishaq Dar's grandson Raza Dar and his four accomplices in this case.

Police not only absolved Dar's grandson and his four friends of rape charges but charged three other low-paid employees of him of raping the women, as per a police report earlier submitted in the court. The two women, one from the Netherlands and the other from Venezuela, were allegedly kidnapped and raped by Raza Dar and four of his friends after arriving in Lahore on a business trip in June this year.

The medical examination confirmed that the foreign women were raped. Both victim women after recording their statements had left for their home countries. According to the police report, the victim women said that they met Raza Dar in Singapore in 2025 and invited him to invest money with them in the business of crypto currency.

After getting profit returns on initial investment, Raza Dar invested over $500,000. "However, this time, the women did not give any profit or return the amount to the suspect," the report said, adding in June this year, the suspect invited both women to Pakistan on the pretext of a meeting with another investor, where they stayed at a hotel in Islamabad and travelled to Murree hill station with their free will.

Later the women were taken to a house in Defence Housing Authority Lahore, where they were allegedly detained and pressured to pay the amount. Police said the women were forced to transfer $19,500. "The armed men guarded the women at the house, threatened them with a knife, a gun and a piece of broken mirror, and warned that they would be killed and their body parts sold if they failed to meet the demands," police said and added the women managed to escape when their kidnappers were taking them to Lahore airport and on the way their vehicle had an accident.

Pakistan / The fight against rape / sexual assault