Police register FIR after foreign woman residing in Karachi's DHA alleges sexual assault

KARACHI: Police on Saturday said they have arrested a man over the alleged rape of a foreign woman in the city’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA).

South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that the suspect has been arrested, a day after the Darakhshan police registered a first information report (FIR) on the woman’s complaint.

DIG Raza said the woman was a medical assistant in cardiology in the United States. He added that she arrived in Pakistan on Nov 13, 2025 and was residing in Phase VI of DHA.

Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn that Darakhshan police brought the 49-year-old woman for a medical examination on Friday after she reported the alleged sexual assault.

“Her samples have been collected for serology and DNA,” the police surgeon said.

The FIR was registered on Friday, hours after the alleged incident, under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Police said further investigation into the matter was under way.

According to the FIR, the complainant was a permanent resident of the US and had been living in DHA since April.

She alleged that at around 4am on July 17, a man, whose name she said she came to know later, “was taking me home and I agreed he could have a drink with me”.

Shortly afterwards, she said, she woke up in her bed and found herself being raped. “It took me a minute to become fully alert to what was happening,” the FIR quoted her as saying.

The complainant recalled that she immediately resisted, started screaming and struck the suspect, who then fled the apartment. She said she tried to chase him, but he escaped on a motorcycle.

“I fell to the ground screaming in grief at the top of my lungs,” she said in the FIR.

The FIR further stated that a woman and her two daughters came to her assistance, provided her with a shirt and helped her back to the apartment.

The complainant further alleged that the suspect later returned to the apartment without knocking to retrieve his phone. She said she again confronted him, screaming and beating him before he fled.

She also claimed that she again attempted to chase him but failed and collapsed on the street, “screaming in distress and trauma”. Subsequently, someone called the police and she was taken to the police station.

On July 2, Lahore police registered an FIR after two foreign women from the Netherlands and Venezuela alleged they were abducted and sexually assaulted during their visit to Pakistan.

One of the five suspects in the case, who was among the four arrested, was related to a senior political figure. ...