Child rape: 8-year-old abducted, raped and murdered

Family, neighbours threaten sit-in at DPO’s office if rapist is not caught in 48 hours.

JHANG:

A labourer’s eight-year-old daughter was abducted, raped and slaughtered on Monday evening.

According to police officials, Iqbalnagar resident Faiz Ahmed’s daughter was kidnapped while she and her father were sleeping in their courtyard on Monday night. The next morning locals in the area discovered her mutilated body inside a trash can a few streets away from her house.

“I woke up to find that my daughter was gone. At first I thought she may have gone inside but after searching for a while, I realised she was kidnapped,” said Faiz. Faiz told police officials that he immediately contacted the local mosque to make an announcement to search for his daughter. Over a dozen people joined in the search for the girl.

“It was early in the morning and several people joined to look for the girl after the morning prayers,” said Iqbalnagar resident Saleem. “After nearly an hour of searching I found her body in a trash bin. It was hard to recognize her because she had been chopped up,” he said. “We were reluctant to tell Faiz at first but eventually we all called the police,” he added.

Police officials said that the body was located near Faiz’s house. “He told us that they were asleep on charpoy in the courtyard and the kidnapper probably took the girl away in the middle of the night.

The body has been mutilated beyond recognition and we have ordered a post mortem,” said Sadar Police Station House Officer (SHO) Asad Jamal.

Dozens of locals in the area protested against the incident and demanded that the police catch the rapist as soon as possible.

Doctors at the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) confirmed that the child was raped. “She has been severely tortured. Her face was mutilated and the murderer strangled her to death,” said Dr Imran Jafri. “The post mortem report has confirmed the rape and we have handed over the results to the police,” he added.

The District Police Officer (DPO) has ordered the immediate arrest of the kidnapper and rapist. After a large crowd gathered outside the DPO’s offices on Tuesday afternoon, he said that the police was looking into the matter and had registered a case. “This is a tragic incident and we are working to find the man responsible for this heinous act,” he added.

Locals in the area said that they would continue their protest and stage a sit-in outside the DPO’s house in Jhang if the rapist was not caught within 48 hours.

“I demand justice for my child’s death. She was completely innocent and no one is safe here. It is the police’s duty to catch the killer and bring him to justice,” Faiz said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2011.