Police fail to arrest alleged rapist and killer of minor girl

Victim’s father expresses concern over delay in arresting accused

RAWALPINDI:

A religious cleric, who had been booked in the alleged rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, whose body was recovered from a graveyard in the Faqeerabad area of Attock some 13 days back, is still at large.

Accused Qari Muhammad Ikram, who has escaped after allegedly raping and killing a 10-year-old girl in the Faqeerabad area of ​​Saddar Attock, could not be arrested despite passing 13 days. Despite Punjab Chief Minister's order to arrest the accused immediately, the police have failed to arrest him.

The tortured body of 10-year-old student Hadia was found in the local graveyard of Faqeerabad on the night between June 13 and 14. The girl went to Qari Muhammad Ikram on June 13 to get religious education but did not return home. When the girl's parents started searching for her along with the neighbours, the accused locked his home and managed to escape. The body of the girl was found in the graveyard during the search.

The case was registered at the Saddar Attock police station on the complaint of the victim's father Mohammad Ajmal in which the father had alleged that Qari Mohammad Ikram had abducted the girl, raped and tortured her and to cover up the crime, killed her and her body was dumped in the graveyard before escaping from the crime scene.

Police registered a case under the provisions of rape, murder, torture and other provisions at the request of the father. Police confirmed the abuse during Hadia's autopsy and samples were sent to Lahore Forensic Laboratory for a DNA test.

Muhammad Ajmal, the father of the slain girl, while talking to The Express Tribune on the phone, said that the family members were going through a painful situation after the murder of his daughter.

He went on to say that Hadia was a very innocent and obedient girl who was treated brutally by a brutal human being

The girl's father said that he was optimistic that the accused will be arrested but there was concern over the continuous delay in the arrest of the accused.

He said that the police have been informed of all the facts and all the evidence has been collected by the police, yet the accused was not being arrested.

The victim's father demanded from Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz Sharif that justice be provided to his family. The Punjab government should monitor the efforts to arrest the accused so that he could be arrested at the earliest.

A spokesman for the RPO office said that police were investigating the serious crime from different angles. “Efforts are under way to arrest the accused. The investigation team will soon receive the post-mortem and DNA test reports,” he said adding that they were fully in touch with the victim's family and the victim's father was satisfied with the police investigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2022.