Cleric booked in rape, murder of minor girl
REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
Police have registered a case against a local religious cleric in the alleged rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl, whose body was recovered from a graveyard in the Faqeerabad area of Attock two days back.
The police have nominated the cleric identified as Qari Ikram in the FIR on a complaint of the victim’s father.
Family members and neighbours had found the body of the victim in the local graveyard after a search for hours.
According to police, the 10-year-old victim had left home for tuition but did not return. The family started searching for the missing minor before they found the body at a local graveyard.
According to police, Qari Ikram, who used to teach the holy Quran to students including the victim, has been on the run after locking his tuition centre.
According to sources, the victim's father has claimed that he saw Qari Ikram throw the body of his daughter in the graveyard before fleeing by taking advantage of the darkness.
According to police sources, the nominated accused's national identity card has been blocked to prevent him from attempting to flee abroad.
The father of the slain 10-year-old H* told police that he hailed from Peshawar and had been living with his wife and children in Mohalla Purana Janazah, Faqeerabad.
The complainant told the police he had three daughters and two sons and the victim was his eldest daughter, who along with other children in the neighbourhood received religious education from Qari Ikram.
He told the police that on June 13, the victim girl went to Qari Ikram's tuition centre as usual, but she did not return home for hours. He said that when he went to Qari Ikram's centre, its door was locked and the girl was missing, He along with neighbours started searching for the girl.
According to the complainant, at 2 o'clock at night between June 13 and June 14, while searching for the girl, they heard a sound of a thud from the graveyard and all the people ran towards the cemetery and they saw Qari Ikram escape from the graveyard. Later, they found the body of the girl lying nearby with blood oozing out from her mouth and ears. There were marks of torture on the body and the shalwar was torn up, he said.
The victim's father alleged that Qari Ikram tortured, raped and killed his daughter to cover up his crime.
Police said that case (223/22) has been registered at the Saddar Attock police station on the complaint of the plaintiff. They said that murder, rape, torture and other charges have been inserted in the FIR.
Police said that three teams have been formed to arrest the accused who has escaped the area.
Meanwhile, the police have sent samples obtained during the post-mortem of the victim to Lahore Forensic Laboratory for analysis and a medical report.
Police have also started gathering other relevant information including the mobile number of the accused.
A police spokesman said that the progress of the investigation into the murder case of the 10-year-old girl was being monitored by RPO Imran Ahmar himself.
A detailed report on the preliminary investigation will be sent to the Punjab chief minister and the Punjab police on Thursday, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2022.