Shazia Khalid

Shazia Khalid is a Pakistani medical doctor. On the night of January 2, 2005 she was allegedly raped by Captain Hammad, an officer of the Pakistan Army's Defence Services Group stationed at Sui, Dera Bugti, in a heavily-guarded government-owned natural gas plant. She was severely injured in the attack. Instead of treating her medically, officials were said to have drugged her into unconsciousness for three days to keep her quiet and then shipped her to a psychiatric hospital in Karachi. For a period of time she was reportedly held at a house in Karachi under the "unofficial protection" of the police and army and was not allowed access to doctors, lawyers or visitors of her choice.

Her case led to a violent uprising by the Bugti tribe in Baluchistan province, disrupting the supply of gas to much of the country for several weeks. By some accounts, up to 10,000 soldiers and police were brought in to quell the rebellion.

Even Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf entered the controversy, saying that the accused officer was not guilty.

In an interview with the BBC, Khalid said that she was threatened many times. "I cannot tell you how many times I was threatened. My life was made impossible. I am still terrified." "My whole career was destroyed, as was my husband’s. That was why we left our country." "Instead of getting justice, I was hounded out of Pakistan. I never wanted to leave Pakistan, but had no choice."

On March 18 Khalid left Pakistan on a flight to London. She has applied for asylum in Canada, where she has relatives, but her application was denied. In August, 2005 New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote several articles about Khalid's story and urged readers to write to the Canadian minister of citizenship and Immigration asking the Canadian government to reconsider.