Two minor girls allegedly raped in Pindi

Police arrest suspect, obtain physical remand from local court

RAWALPINDI:

Two minor girls were allegedly raped in the washroom of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board Hospital (RCBH). Police arrested the accused, identified as Ghulam Murtaza, with the help of hospital staff. The victim girls, who were making a living by selling balloons on the Hospital Road, were lured by the accused and took them to the hospital washroom and raped them.

Sources said that sexual assault has been confirmed in the preliminary medical report while the accused mobile phone had been seized to hand over to the FIA for a forensic test. A case has been registered against the accused at the Cantonment Police Station.

According to the FIR, plaintiff Safdar Hussain told the police that “he belonged to a poor family and sells balloons on Hospital Road with the help of his daughter. On Friday evening, his nine years old daughter “N” was selling balloons on Hospital Road with her cousin R, aged 11, when accused Ghulam Murtaza dragged the two to the washroom of the hospital and raped them.

He said that the accused threatened to kill them if they told about the sexual assault. Police shifted the two girls to the District Headquarters Hospital for medical treatment and an initial medical report was conducted. SP Pothohar Division Abdul Wahab Rana told The Express Tribune that in the initial medical report, the sexual assault of the two girls was confirmed and a case was registered against the accused. The SP further said that the mobile phone recovered from the accused has been seized which will be handed over to FIA for forensic test, adding that the process for the DNA test of the accused and the victims had also been initiated. Meanwhile, a police spokesman said that the accused was produced in the local court and his physical remand has been obtained.

On the other hand, a spokesperson for the RCBH said that the hospital administration was fully cooperating with the police in the case. The accused was apprehended by the cantonment vigilance staff stationed at the hospital and handed over to the police, he said adding that additional vigilance personnel have been deployed in all the dark areas of the hospital and security arrangements have been tightened at all entrance and exit points of the hospital.

The spokesman said that the accused had entered the hospital as a patient and allegedly raped the girls in the washroom of the radiology department and the hospital administration would also provide to the police the footage of CCTV cameras installed in the hospital. Meanwhile, the FIA cybercrime circle arrested accused Zain Ali for allegedly making obscene videos of children and blackmailing them in the Iqbal Colony area of Tench Bhata. According to the FIA, the accused used to harass the children by making obscene videos and blackmailing them. A case has been registered against the accused.