Abid Malhi turned himself in to end harassment of family women, says father

Disputes police narrative that he was nabbed; says police were asleep when he handed over Abid Malhi

LAHORE:

The father of the prime suspect in motorway gang-rape case Akbar Ali claimed on Tuesday that his son turned himself in to bring to an end the harassment of the women in his family.

His son, Abid Ali, became Pakistan's most wanted man after he was identified as one of the culprits in the gang-rape case that gripped the entire country.

Police say that Abid was nabbed after they traced his whereabouts when he called his brother-in-law in the city in Punjab.

His father, however, told The Express Tribune that,"My son called me after a month at 3:30am and I pleaded with him to turn himself in as as the entire family was in police custody and our women were being harrassing".

Akbar added that his son came to his place and talked to him and consoled him that "everything will be okay"..

At the time, his father said that police were asleep on a roof nearby and he woke them up and handed him over to them.

IGP Inam Ghani, denied the claims.

"We have been doing everything we can to arrest him," he said.

The police officer shared that certain family members were released as bait to catch Abid.

In September, two robbers on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway had gang-raped a mother of two in front of her children in an area falling within the Gujjarpura police jurisdiction. The incident caused a countrywide outpouring of anger and brought sexual violence against women into national focus.

The Punjab Police had drawn heavy criticism for failing to apprehend the suspects.