Crime against children: Missing girl found ‘killed’

The decomposed body was recovered from roadside bushes, police said.

FAISALABAD:

The putrefied body of a seven-year-old girl, who was abducted five days ago, was recovered from the bushes in Thikriwala on Monday.

Thikriwala police said that the girl, a resident of Chakko Mor, was kidnapped on September 12 from Chak 71-JB in Sarli.

They said the girl had gone missing from a wedding where she had gone with her father.

On Monday, police said, a girl’s body was found from roadside bushes. Her father recognised her from her clothes.

Her family and scores of other residents of the area later staged a protest demonstration against the police for failing to arrest the suspects timely. The girl’s father said that he had been visiting the police station everyday to push for speedy investigation in the case, but to no avail. He said he was a fruit vendor and “did not have the means to bribe police”.



He said he had informed the police that he had suspected some of his relatives to be behind the abduction. He said they (suspects) lived in the same village and had had an old rivalry with him.

He said had the police raided the suspects’ house or arrested them, he was certain that his daughter could have been saved.

Nabeel Ahmad, a relative of the deceased, said that the body was swollen. He said it seemed that she had died some days ago. He said her face was burned. It was as if the killers had thrown acid at it to make identification difficult.

He said the girl’s clothes were torn and there were bruises on the body. He said the family believed that she had died in a rape attempt.

The protesters shouted slogans demanding that the suspects be arrested immediately.

CIA Superintendent Rana Azeem and his team visited the scene and asked the protesters to calm down. He assured them that the suspects would soon be arrested soon.

Thikriwala Station House Officer Abdul Majeed told The Express Tribune that a case had been registered against four people nominated in the FIR by the mother of the deceased.

Police said the suspects had been charged under Sections 302, 148 and 149. The body was sent to Allied Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Investigation Officer Rehmatullah the post-mortem examination report had not established the cause of death. He said samples had been sent to the Chemical Examiner’s Laboratory to ascertain the cause of death.

Separately, in Khanewal, Rescue 1122 recovered the body of a man from Bara Meel Canal. Police said the body was found floating in the canal near Kabirwala.

Police said they had made announcements seeking help with its identification, but no one had come forward. It had been sent to the district headquarters hospital morgue, they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2013.