Child kidnapped, badly hurt in rape attempt

Doctors describe 5-year-old’s condition as critical.

RAHIM YAR KHAN: A five-year-old child has been hospitalised with a severe head injury and several cuts he suffered in an assault allegedly by two men who were attempting to rape him.

Doctors treating Salman*, a resident of Chak 72 NP, at Shaikh Zayed Hospital describe his condition as critical. “He has been hit on his head by a brick. He has not yet gained full consciousness,” a doctor said.

Besides being hit by the brick, the child was attacked with a knife, he said. “He has several cuts on his body,” he added. The doctor said full recovery will require about three to four months.

Saddar station house officer Mohammad Younis told The Express Tribune that they had registered an FIR against Muzaffar* and Rizwan*, residents of the same neighbourhood, under Section 377 and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Complainant Mohammad Ali*, father of the child, said the suspects kidnapped Salman while he was playing in the street and took him to their house.

Ali said some neighbours were drawn to the scene on hearing Salman’s cries. He quoted Afzal, his next-door neighbour, as saying that the suspects escaped from a wall on the back of their house on finding people gathered outside.

Afzal told the complainant that on breaking into the house they found the child lying unconscious in the room. “Blood was gushing out from a wound in his head,” he said.  Ali was called to the scene and he took Salman to the hospital.

Saddar police said they had raided the suspect’s house but no one was found over there. They said a police team had been formed to search the surrounding villages.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the victim

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2012.