Child rape: Video of incident circulated by cell phone
Villagers hand accused over to police; Sana’s condition is serious.
JANDANWALA:
A video of a man raping a 6-year-old girl in Jandanwala was sent to dozens of people on their phones Tuesday afternoon. According to police officials, an investigation team was working on identifying the rapist in the video, when villagers caught the accused and brought him to the police station on Wednesday evening.
The incident occurred in Chak 38-A, when resident Asim Rashid’s daughter Sana went to a local shopkeeper’s store to get ice cream. Sana was abducted from the site and taken to a nearby apartment where she was raped. The accused recorded the incident on his cell phone and by the time neighbours heard the child’s screams and rescued her he had already fled the scene. “We found her lying in a pool of blood and immediately rushed her to the DHQ hospital. Where her condition is said to serious,” said a neighbour who rescued the child, Maqbool Shams.
Locals approached the Jandanwala police to register a case against the rape and the hospital released a medical certificate confirming that Sana had been raped. “The child had been beaten severely and she was raped. She has suffered serious injuries but I am confident she will recover,” said Dr Amina Saeed.
“The same afternoon we got a message of the video. Several of my family members got the video and even some neighbours,” said Asim. “I took the video to the police but it is hard to identify the man through the video. Still police officials said that they would examine the evidence in detail,” he said. “The same evening locals caught him and brought him to police,” he added.
Jandanwala police has registered a case against the accused and are investigating. “He has not confessed to the crime yet but we have taken him into custody and he is being questioned,” said Inspector Mazhar.
All names have been altered to protect the identity of the victim
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2011.
A video of a man raping a 6-year-old girl in Jandanwala was sent to dozens of people on their phones Tuesday afternoon. According to police officials, an investigation team was working on identifying the rapist in the video, when villagers caught the accused and brought him to the police station on Wednesday evening.
The incident occurred in Chak 38-A, when resident Asim Rashid’s daughter Sana went to a local shopkeeper’s store to get ice cream. Sana was abducted from the site and taken to a nearby apartment where she was raped. The accused recorded the incident on his cell phone and by the time neighbours heard the child’s screams and rescued her he had already fled the scene. “We found her lying in a pool of blood and immediately rushed her to the DHQ hospital. Where her condition is said to serious,” said a neighbour who rescued the child, Maqbool Shams.
Locals approached the Jandanwala police to register a case against the rape and the hospital released a medical certificate confirming that Sana had been raped. “The child had been beaten severely and she was raped. She has suffered serious injuries but I am confident she will recover,” said Dr Amina Saeed.
“The same afternoon we got a message of the video. Several of my family members got the video and even some neighbours,” said Asim. “I took the video to the police but it is hard to identify the man through the video. Still police officials said that they would examine the evidence in detail,” he said. “The same evening locals caught him and brought him to police,” he added.
Jandanwala police has registered a case against the accused and are investigating. “He has not confessed to the crime yet but we have taken him into custody and he is being questioned,” said Inspector Mazhar.
All names have been altered to protect the identity of the victim
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2011.