Police round up two in rape-murder case

Suspects apprehended include the victim’s neighbours, relatives.

KARACHI:

Police apprehended two main suspects in relation with the murder of a 13-year-old girl whose body was found from Seaview Karachi on Thursday.

On Friday, the police rounded up 20 suspects including the victim’s neighbours and relatives. Police officials confirmed that two out of the 20 suspects were still in custody while the rest were allowed to go after interrogation.

The girl went missing on September 24 after an unidentified woman took her from school claiming that her mother was unwell. The girl’s body was later recovered from the beachfront. Postmortem reports confirmed that the girl was raped and died of suffocation.

Police said the victim’s father had received a ransom call, asking him to pay a million rupees for the girl’s release. Officials said that they were working on tracking the numbers to locate the murderers.

Meanwhile, in the latest development Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah ordered a judicial commission to probe the rape and murder incident.

Names of the members of the commission are soon to be announced.

School’s registration cancelled

In a drastic move that followed the recovery of the girl’s body, Sindh’s Senior Minster for Education and Literacy Nisar Ahmed Khuhro cancelled the registration of the school the victim studied at.

According to an official statement, the registration of the Rose Season Grammar School situated in Azizabad, Karachi has been cancelled. A three-member committee has also been formed to look into the matter as the minister has directed officials of private and public schools not to hand over students to anyone except their families.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2013.