Heinous crime: Man arrested for kidnapping child, assault

11-year-old says she was taken to Karachi where she was detained for three weeks.


Kashif Zafar January 01, 2012

BAHAWALPUR:


City police have arrested one of the two man accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old child after kidnapping her from near her house in Azizabad over a month ago.


Investigation Officer SI Basheer Ahmed said the suspect, Ghulam Muhammad, was arrested from his house on Friday night. He said the other suspect, Khair Muhammad, managed to flee.

SI Ahmed said the arrest was made after sexual assault was confirmed in a medical examination of the child carried out at Shaikh Zayed Hospital. He said an FIR had been registered under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (punishment of rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint filed against the suspects by the child’s father, Muhammad Hanif.

He said during interrogation the suspect had denied the charge and claimed that he had contracted marriage with her. He said the other suspect had the marriage deed. The SI said police might add the forced marriage charge to the FIR once the other suspect was arrested if the deed was recovered from him.

Hanif, a resident of Azizabad, told The Express Tribune that the child had escaped from Karachi where she was detained and returned home about a week ago. He said the child had told the family that she had been kidnapped and taken to a house in Karachi. The child said the suspects had sexually assaulted her repeatedly until she fled the house when both men were away. She said she had then reached the railway station and boarded a train for Bahawalpur.

Hanif said the child was kidnapped over a month ago from a market near her house in Azizabad. He said the suspects had lived in his neighbourhood.

376. Punishment for rape

(1) Whoever commits rape shall be punished with death or imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than ten rears or more than twenty-five years and shall also be liable to fine.

(2) When rape is committed by two or more persons in furtherance of common intention of all, each of such persons shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life.”.

363. Punishment for kidnapping:

Whoever kidnaps any person from Pakistan or from lawful guardianship, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2012.

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