Alleged rapists of student still at large

Police fail to conduct DNA test of victim, two arrested accused

RAWALPINDI:

Two suspects, Shahnawaz and Taimur, allegedly involved in the rape of a seventh-grade student at gunpoint in the hostel of a private Cadet college in Murree have not yet been arrested.

Sources said that police have decided to send teams to Karachi and Bannu to arrest the suspects after obtaining a warrant from the court.

Shahnawaz and Taimur hailed from Karachi and Bannu respectively.

Meanwhile, the police have also failed to conduct the DNA test of the victim and the two suspected rapists who have been taken into custody.

Sources said that a case of the alleged rape was registered on October 19 against three first-year students and an eighth grader of the college on the complaint of the victim’s father.

Police have arrested two accused named Hassan Afridi and Saud, and have obtained their physical remand from a local court.

However, the police were facing difficulty in conducting the DNA test of the victim and the two arrested accused. Police officials claimed that the parents of the victim student were not cooperating.

A senior police officer said that the two accused have been on the run since the incident happened. He said that police teams will be sent to Karachi and Bannu after obtaining a warrant from the court for their arrest.

He said that the two arrested suspects Hassan Afridi and Saud were under investigation after police obtained their five-day remand. The physical remand of the two suspects will be completed tomorrow and they will be produced again in court, he said.

Meanwhile, an accused involved in resisting the police team during the raid on the college has been arrested and sent to jail on judicial remand.

Earlier, police arrested the two suspected rapists after a raid that saw commotion as the staff and students of the college started pelting stones at the police in protest and detained personnel of the raiding team. The seventh-class student was allegedly gang-raped at the hostel of the Cadet College Company Bagh in Murree.

Police registered a case against four accused after the victim’s father filed a complaint over the incident. According to the Murree police report, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the 12-year-old’s father, a resident of Lahore, told the police that his son had been boarding at the college hostel.