A curious case: Security guard arrested for shooting 15-year-old

Girl claims she was shot by a Facebook friend.

BAHAWALPUR:

Kotwali police arrested on Thursday a security guard, who they said had confessed to shooting a 15-year-old girl the day before.

The girl was hit in the arm and taken to Bahawal Victoria Hospital, where she underwent a surgery.

In her statement on Wednesday, she had identified a 20-year-old Facebook friend of shooting her when she turned down his offer for a ride home. Police now say that she was shot by the guard, Muhammad Sajid, trying to stop her and the boy who were leaving the basement of a shop he was guarding.

Shorlty after being brought to the hospital, the girl, a student at the Convent School, had said that she was shot on her way home near Fawara Chowk on Circular Road. She said the assailant had befriended her on Facebook and had been asking her to meet him, but she had turned down his invitation.

On Wednesday, she said, he had followed her while she walked back from school and offered her a ride in his car. She said there was another boy with him in the car. She said when she asked him to leave, he shot her.

Some passers-by took her to the hospital.



Sub-Inspector Rehan Gillani told The Express Tribune that on-the-scene investigation suggested that the girl was meeting the boy in the basement.

On being confronted by the security guard there, he said, they had tried to flee. He quoted the guard as saying that the gun in his hands went off accidently.

The sub-inspector said that the police were waiting for the girl’s father to return from Islamabad and file a complaint.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2013.