Minor girl ‘molested after murder’
PHOTO: FILE
A seven-year-old girl was strangled to death and sexually assaulted after the murder by her cousin and another man, police revealed on Monday.
The minor girl was found dead in a pond near her home in Sundar area. The victim had gone missing on Sunday. Her family searched for her in the locality, including the homes of relatives.
The suspected murderers pretended to search for the victim along with the family. A relative of the girl said she was last seen with her cousin Rizwan Yousef and she had gone to the nearby house of a relative. Interrogation of the primary suspect revealed that he lured the victim to a deserted place after promising to give her Rs10 and also telling her that her father was calling her.
After taking her to nearby fields, the two men strangled her to death and sexually assaulted her, police officials said.
The family pressured Rizwan to tell them about the victim’s whereabouts, but he expressed ignorance.
When the family decided to call the police after failing to find the girl the whole night, the suspect went to the house of his sister and told her that his friend had threatened to murder him if he did not take his cousin to him.
Rizwan’s sister informed the victim’s family, who went to a pond near the village in view of his revelation. They spotted the body and informed the police.
A rescue swimmers’ team, Punjab Forensic Science Agency officials and police reached the spot on information. They took the body to morgue for autopsy and collected forensic evidence from the spot.
The police took the prime suspect Rizwan and his accomplice Allah Ditta into custody.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Investigations Shariq Jamal said while speaking to the media that initial investigations had shown that the victim was murdered before the sexual assault.
He said Rizwan had lured the victim to a deserted place, where he and his accomplice strangled her to death and molested her body. They afterwards dumped the body into a pond to hide their crime.
The police said they were investigating the matter further.
Cases of sexual violence against children are reported frequently in the province.
A report by Sahil, a non-governmental organisation, revealed that at least eight children fell victim to sexual abuse daily on average in the country.
In the first half of the current year, at least 1,489 children were subjected to sexual assault.
Three days earlier, a man suspected of sexually assaulting six minor girls in Sarai Mughal area of Pattoki was arrested by police. Police said that the accused used to lure the girls on various pretexts.
The victims were between 10 and 12 years of age and the suspect was arrested after being identified by them. On November 21, a seven-year-old girl’s body was dumped after her rape in Baghbanpura. A day earlier, a case of gang rape of a minor was reported in the same area. Two suspects identified as Mubashir and Sheraz were booked in the case.
On November 19, a case of sexual assault on an eight-year-old boy was reported in Faisalabad. On November 11, a girl was sexually assaulted in Noshera Virkan. On November 8, a student was murdered after sexual assault in Mandi Bahauddin.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2020.