Crime against children: 2 suspected of raping a 9-year-old

She was kidnapped on her way to school.

SARGODHA:

Police on Thursday arrested two men for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl.

Police said the girl was kidnapped on her way back to school after spending the lunch break at her home.

They said the men had taken her to a dera and raped her.

They said when the girl did not return from school, her parents went looking for her. They informed the police when the school administration told them that she had not returned from the lunch break.

Police quoted her parents as saying that they later found her lying unconscious on the roadside near her home. She was taken first to Red Crescent Hospital, where the administration refused to admit her, and then to Maula Bakhsh Hospital, associated with the district headquarters hospital.

Doctors treating her later said that she would likely survive. Police said they were waiting for her medico-legal examination report.

District Police Officer Haider Ashraf told The Express Tribune that some neighbours had reported last seeing them with the girl. They were arrested from their dera, the DPO said.

Youm-i-Rehmat

The Pakistan Ulema Council has called for a Youm-i-Rehmat (day of blessings) on Friday (today) across the country to protest the increasing number of rape cases in the province.

Talking to reporters in Rahim Yar Khan on Thursday, the Council’s senior vice president Hafiz Muhammad Ammar Nazir Baloch said that the day was being observed on the recommendation of the council president, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Asharfi.

He said council members across the country would protest against the growing number of rape cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2013.