Police officials said that the accused, Aftab alias ‘Taabi’, was kidnapped from police custody by two of his accomplices and killed by his cohorts during crossfire with the police later on in the day.
Daska police had been searching for Aftab since April 2010 and Daska assistant sub-inspector police (ASP) Dr Syed Ahmed Khan arrested him outside a factory located on Chattha Chowk in Gujranwala five days ago. Police officials said they received an anonymous tip regarding his whereabouts. “Aftab had been hiding out in Gujranwala, where he was employed a factory worker, all of the rape cases took place in Sialkot,” Khan said. Police officials ordered a DNA test and the test confirmed that Aftab was responsible for at least five counts of rape on minor girls aged five to nine years.
Initially Aftab was presented before court which pronounced a four-day physical remand. On Monday, the court ordered that Aftab be sent on a judicial remand. According to the police, as the prisoner was being taken to the Sialkot jail the police convoy was attacked by two gun men on a motorcycle. Sub-Inspector Muzafffar and three inspectors were transporting Aftab to the Sialkot jail via Pasrur Road, near Jessarwala Bhatti Colony when they said they heard firing. “We saw two gunmen, who had their faces covered and they were heavily armed. As we stopped the car they attacked us and freed the prisoner. We tried chasing them but they had escaped by the time we recovered,” Muzaffar said. ASP Khan said that the police later received a tip-off regarding the men’s location and followed them to a field outside Bhatti Colony where the criminals opened fire on them. “They began firing on us the moment we approached the field. The encounter lasted for over 30 minutes,” he said, adding that the two masked men fled the scene. “Station House Officer (SHO) Arfanul Haq SuleHria chased after the assailants but was unable to catch them,” Khan said, adding that when his team approached the field they saw Aftab’s dead body lying there. “He was killed by his accomplices, they probably wanted to make a hasty escape and left him there possibly because he was disabled,” Khan said.
According to the police, Aftab had suffered a foot injury several years ago and had developed a visible limp since then. Some rape survivors identified Aftab based on his limp. Last month, seven-year-old Fatima identified a man, Razzaq, as the rapist but Razzaq’s DNA tests turned out negative. As it turned out, Razzaq was a drug addict who was not coherently answering the police questions during their investigation and police officials beat him to the extent that he developed a temporary limp. When the child saw the man’s limp she mistook him for the rapist. Another false arrest involved a young man Nadeem, who was identified by two rape survivors as the man responsible because he was flogged severely and couldn’t walk properly. In Nadeem’s case, the ASP announced to the media and public that the rapist had already been caught before his DNA tests were ordered. Nadeem was presented before the media and under duress admitted to the rape until his DNA tests turned out to be negative and absolved him.
Gujranwala DIG, in a press conference two days ago, announced that the police department was facing severe pressure to hand Aftab over to residents. “The crowds thronged before the police station and demanded that we either kill Aftab or hand him over to them so that they could beat him to death but we needed to uphold the law,” the DIG said.
After Aftab’s body was recovered from the field, police officials paraded the dead body on all the city roads in Sialkot and placed it for public view in front of the Daska DHQ Civil Hospital, where a crowd of hundreds chanted slogans against Aftab and threw stones at his body. The body was eventually shifted inside the hospital for autopsy.
Aftab, was never officially convicted of rape or kidnapping because of his death. Police officials launched an extensive awareness campaign in Daska following the first rape incident in April 2010 and several posters and pamphlets identifying the victim’s appearance were scattered around the city.
With additional reporting by Junaid Aftab
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2010.
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