Deadly encounter: Teenager accused of raping boy killed in ‘escape bid’

Police say Shoaib had tried to flee.

LAHORE: Police said on Monday they had killed the prime suspect in the January 2 assault and murder of a five-year-old boy in Green Town when he tried to escape from the police’s custody.

They said Shoaib was being taken to an anti-terrorism court on a police van when he snatched a policeman’s rifle and tried to flee near the Muslim Town underpass on Canal Road.

Shoaib, who had been a barber, was killed in the ensuing encounter, police said.

One of Shoaib’s relatives accused police of killing him in a fake encounter. “He had confessed to killing the boy. Instead of producing him in a court for trial, police killed him in a fake encounter,” he said. The five-year-old was found hanged at a mosque on January 2. A day later, an autopsy report confirmed that he had been raped before being killed. Police had taken nine people, including Shoaib, into custody and carried out DNA and polygraph tests on them. Shoiab was found guilty; the remaining suspects were released. Shoaib had told the media on January 14 that he had coaxed the child into following him when he asked for a Rs5 donation for Eid Miladun Nabi celebrations.

“I told him that I would give him Rs50 if he followed me.” He said he had strangled the boy after raping him.

The barber said he had earlier assaulted four other boys.

Earlier, a video had gone viral on some social media websites in which a prayer leader was seen confessing to the assault and murder in front of police. However, police never vouched for the content of the video.

Later, a probe by the CIA police found the prayer leaders innocent and he was released along with other suspects on the orders of the Anti-Terrorism Court No 2.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.