Minor's rapists to be brought to book: Police

Top police officers of the city visited the house of the child brutally assaulted and murdered by her neighbours in the Jhandda Chichi area of Rawalpindi within the remits of Civil Lines police station.

City Police Officer Rawalpindi Ahsan Younus police officers reached Zainab’s home and apprised her father about the development in the investigation and the arrests of the accused. Zainab's father expressed satisfaction over the police's response.

DIG Younus assured the family of carrying out an investigation on merit and filing a strong case before the court to secure the strongest sentence against the accused.

Police on Friday formally booked three accused in the rape and murder of nine-year-old Zainab. The suspects, Adnan and Babar Masih, have confessed to the crime, police claimed in a statement.

Ironically, Babar Masih's wife, Aneeqa is also allegedly involved in the crime.

According to police, the child had gone to a shop to buy some stuff from a neighborhood shop on March 22, when she went missing. The family got alarmed after an hour and started searching for her in the locality, soon the whole neighborhood was looking for her, while many people made frantic calls to police and rescue services.

Meanwhile, someone suggested that she might have gone to the neighbours and some people went inside Babar’s home.

People found there the child’s body from under the bed of Aneeqa Babar. Babar, his wife Aneeqa, and Adnan have been arrested while the two men have also confessed to their crimes, the police claimed.

CPO Ahsan Younus said that a team comprising the SSP investigation, the SP Potohar, the SHO Civil Lines police station and expert investigation officers has been formed for the case now that the challenge of tracing and arresting the suspects has been successfully achieved.

The CPO further shared that the second and more important challenge is to file a challan with the support of concrete evidence so that the prosecution could secure the harshest sentence for the culprits from the court.

He said an investigation will be carried technically and forensically, and all the legal requirements will be fulfilled to serve strict punishment to the accused of committing the brutal crime.

Earlier on Tuesday, protesters had blocked the Rawalpindi airport road and attempted to barge into the Civil Lines police station following the rape and murder of the minor on Monday night.

A scuffle was witnessed at the police station with heavy contingents of the law enforcement agency barring the protesters from entering the premises.

The crowd dispersed after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Chaudhry Adnan and SSP Operations reached the scene and assured the protesters of delivering justice and producing the suspect in the court with concrete evidence.