Rape victim’s family protests outside Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth

They say that the law enforcers are not doing enough.

KARACHI: The family of a six-year-old rape victim held a protest outside the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth on Thursday afternoon against doctors who conducted the autopsy. They also complained about the fact that the law enforcers had not taken substantial action against the perpetrators.

The family of the victim were enraged that her body had been disfigured during the post mortem. “How dare they conduct a post mortem without our consent!” said the victim’s grandfather, Muhammad Siddiq. He alleged that the doctors who conducted the autopsy had gorged his granddaughter’s eyes out.

The family complained that so far, the police had done nothing to catch the culprits. They also questioned why the police had done nothing to rescue the child when they had filed a report at the Jauharabad police station when the girl had gone missing.

The family of the girl said that she was playing with other children outside their house on Monday, when a man showed up on a camel and offered them rides. The victim was last seen with this man.

“People with camels often pass through our neighbourhood, so we don’t pay much attention to who they are,” said Siddiq. The victim’s father Mohammad Nazeer was too grief-stricken to talk about the incident.

The duty officer at Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station, Liaquat Ali, said that around 12:55pm on Wednesday, they were informed about a body in some bushes on University Road. The body was handed over to Edhi and a post mortem was conducted at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

SHO Mohammad Rashid admitted that the police does not have a lead on the suspect. But he cast doubt whether the man who had abducted the girl was a camel rider.

“If there was indeed a camel rider who had abducted the girl in broad daylight, then there would have been more than one person who would have witnessed the kidnapping.” However, police say that only one person named Jamal and his wife have come forward as witnesses.

They say that they saw the girl walking along with the camel rider. “We are looking into all possibilities, including the angle that perhaps someone from the family or one of the neighbours could have had a hand in the incident.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2011.