16. On 4 July 2012, women's human rights activist Fareeda Kokikhel Afridi was killed in a drive-by shooting as she left her home in Peshawar for work in the Khyber Tribal Agency. Local civil society groups said she had been targeted for promoting the human rights of women. The authorities failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. In 2007, Kainat Soomro a 13-year-old was kidnapped at gunpoint and gang raped. Her family faced widespread condemnation for refusing to "honor" kill their daughter and faced several attacks which resulted in the death of her brother. Her rapists were all acquitted and she was put under trial for premarital sex which is a crime under Islamic law. In June 2002, Mukhtaran Bibi was gang raped on the orders of a tribal council and paraded naked in front of a cheering crowd of 300 people. She did not commit suicide, as is customary in gang rape incidents in Pakistan, but instead attempted to seek justice. Nearly a decade after the incident 5 of the 6 accused of gang-raping her were acquitted while the sixth faces life in prison. She continues to face widespread discrimination in Pakistan and has been subject to house arrest, illegal detention, and harassment from the government and law enforcement agencies. Political abuse of human rights Provincial and local governments have arrested journalists and closed newspapers that report on matters perceived as socially offensive or critical of the government or military. Journalists also have been victims of violence and intimidation by various groups and individuals. In spite of these difficulties, the press publishes freely on other matters, although journalists often exercise self-restraint in their writing to avoid inuring the wrath of the government or military. In 2001, citizens participated in general elections, but those elections were criticized as deeply flawed by domestic and international observers. Societal actors also are responsible for human rights abuses. Violence by drug lords and sectarian militias claims numerous innocent lives, discrimination and violence against women are widespread, human trafficking is problematic, and debt slavery and bonded labor persist. The government often ignores abuses against children and religious minorities, and some government institutions and Muslim groups have persecuted non-Muslims and used some laws as the legal basis for doing so. The Blasphemy law, for example, allows life imprisonment or the death penalty for contravening Islamic principles, but legislation was passed in October 2004 to attempt to