Girl set on fire: Suspect secures pre-arrest bail

Police say they have apprehended one of the five suspects; expected to submit report to SC soon

RAWALPINDI: Nearly three days after five men had set a nine-year-old girl on fire, one of the suspects approached a district court and secured pre-arrest bail.

The move comes just a day after the chief justice of Pakistan had taken notice of the case.

Mehtab Gul, one the accused, filed an application in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Gulzar Ahmed Khalid and obtained interim bail till February 7.

Meanwhile, the Rawalpindi police are set to submit detail report in the case to the Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar after he took suo moto notice of the incident.

A police official, privy to the investigations, told The Express Tribune that Ratta Amral police had apprehended one of the suspects, Muhammad Arif.

On Sunday, Muhammad Asif said that his daughter I*had gone to a shop to make purchases during a visit to his brother-in-law. While returning from the store, five men stopped her, doused her with petrol and set her on fire.

Asif said that his brother-in-law, Ashiq, had previously had a fight with some men including Tariq and that they had even opened fire on him during an earlier encounter.

Ashiq had subsequently filed an attempted murder case against Tariq and his four accomplices. Pursuing that report, police said they had managed to apprehend Arif.

The police official added that the conflicting groups were related to each other and sell fruits and vegetables on hand carts.

SSP Operation Irfan Tariq confirmed the arrest of one of the suspects, adding that further investigations were underway.

He added that forensic experts had visited the crime on Tuesday and obtained a specimen from the girl’s body before dispatching it to the forensic laboratory in Lahore for examination.

Stable

Meanwhile, the girl, who had been admitted to the burns centre at the Holy Family Hospital was described by doctors to be in stable condition.

Doctors at the hospital said that the girl had suffered 15 to 20 per cent burns.

*Name withheld to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2017.