Police take the rap for minor’s rape, murder

Criticism mount at failure to act in time to save the girl lack of transparency in the investigation

HYDERABAD: As the police take the rap for not disclosing progress in the murder case of two minor siblings, Hyderabad Additional Inspector-General Dr Ghulam Sarwar Jamali has said progress details will be shared on Saturday. "The police have made progress in the investigation. The details will be shared in the next 24 hours," he told the media at the esidence of Intizar Hussain Siyal, whose 12-year-old son, Qadir Baksh, and eight year-old-daughter, R*, were killed after kidnapping and rape in GOR colony area in Hyderabad on Friday.

The siblings were kidnapped in the evening of July 8 from near their residence in GOR Colony. Baksh was found on Airport Road in s fatally injured condition the same night and R*'s dead body was found on July 11 from an under-construction unit in Bismillah City area.

Baksh, in his dying declaration to the police, named Usman Bengali alias Murghi Wala for kidnapping the two and for stabbing him with a knife. He had also urged the police to save his sister, expressing fear that she would also be killed.

The slain siblings' parents as well as civil society's representatives and politicians are blaming the police for not sharing progress in the investigation and also not declaring the arrest of Bengali.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) MPA Haleem Adil Sheikh, who also condoled with the family in Hyderabad on Friday, asked the Sindh IGP to suspend the relevant police officials and order an investigation against them. "Instead of trying to save the girl, the GOR and Airport police stations got entangled over the jurisdiction issue," he deplored while speaking to the media.

Sheikh said if the killers of children of Kasur and other murdered children had been punished, the lives of many innocent children like Baksh and R* could have been saved. Sheikh also called for the suspension of Hyderabad SSP Sarfaraz Nawaz Shaikh.

A delegation of civil society representatives led by the chairperson of Commission on the Status of Women Nuzhat Shirin met Hyderabad DIG Naeem Ahmed Shaikh at the latter's office. They demanded insertion of the sections of Anti-Terrorism Act in the FIR and sought an update on the progress in the investigation. However, the DIG did not reveal what progress the police have made so far in the probe and told them that the police would consult its legal experts about addition of the ATA sections in the FIR.

"We said to the DIG there is a need to keep transparency in the investigation. Society ought to be updated about the progress otherwise rumours and propaganda will find space," said advocate Ali Palh, who was part of the delegation, speaking to The Express Tribune.

People critical of the police have been questioning why the arrest of Bengali has not been declared even after four days of the incident. Police, however, sources say that two or three persons including Bengali have been arrested.

*Name has been withheld to protect the identity of the victim

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2019.