Rapists of flood-hit minor girl caught

Police solve case within 72 hours; suspects confess to abusing girl in moving car for 40 minutes

KARACHI:

Police have arrested two suspected sexual predators accused of gang-raping a 10-year-old girl from a flood-affected family in a posh neighbourhood of the city, officials confirmed on Wednesday. The accused, identified as Ghulam Rasool and Khalid Lund, have reportedly confessed to raping the girl in a moving car for 40 minutes.

Rasool and Lund are accused of picking up the 10-year-old from outside a shopping mall in Clifton Block 4 within the jurisdiction of Boat Basin police station on Sunday, taking her to a location and gang-raping her there.

They had lured the victim promising to buy her food ration at a nearby grocery store, according to police. SSP Investigation South SP Zahida Parveen and SSP Tando Allyhyar Farooq Bijarani confirmed the arrests, claiming that the two have confessed to the crime.

Rasool was arrested from Clifton, and on the basis of information provided by him Lund was taken into custody from Tando Allahyar. Both are friends and lived together in a rented house in Karachi.

Police have collected DNA samples of Rasool and sent them to laboratory, while Lund will be medically examined after he is brought back from Tando Allahyar. On the day of the incident, Rasool was at a barber's shop in Neelum Colony.

He called up his friend Lund and both sexual predators set off in search of their "prey". In Clifton Block 4, they lured the little innocent girl into their car, promising to buy her food ration at a nearby grocery store.

AIG Karachi Javed Alam Odho briefed the media on the arrests at his office where he was flanked by DIG South Irfan Baloch, SSP South Asad Raza, and SP Investigation Zahida Parveen. It was a shocking and sickening incident and everyone, including Sindh's chief minister and IGP, had taken notice of it, he said.

Soon after the registration of the case, an investigation team was formed under the DIG South's leadership to trace the sexual perverts. "The investigation team not only solved the blind case within 72 hours but also arrested the two accused," he added.

The victim belongs to a poor family which had shifted from rural Sindh after the recent floods and was temporarily living near the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi. On the day of the incident, the girl went out for begging, but the two accused tricked her into getting into their white Suzuki Alto car, AIG Odho said.

The accused drove the girl towards Do Darya, in Sea View area, where they raped her in their moving car. Later, they dropped her off at the same location from where they had picked her. Police obtained video footages from the CCTV cameras installed in the area. With the help of the footage, they identified the Suzuki Alto car used in the crime and traced it to a person in Ghotki district who had sold it to a resident of Karachi a few days ago.

AIG Odho said that the new owner of the car was taken into custody, who told police investigators that he had hired a driver, named Ghulam Rasool, to drive his car as online taxi.

Subsequently, police detained Rasool and on the basis of information gleaned from him arrested his accomplice Lund from Tando Allahyar. Khalid had fled to his native village after Rasool was taken into custody by police. The Karachi police chief said that the accused appear to be morally depraved sexual predators as they told police investigators during interrogation that even on the day of their arrest they were looking for a prey.

SHC summons high police officials

Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh taking notice of the incident related to the gang-rape of a 10-year-old flood-affected girl has ordered the DIG South and SSP Investigation South One to appear in person and submit a detailed report on Thursday. A notification issued by the SHC registrar office said.