Heinous crime: Two arrested for raping minor

Suspects allegedly raped and strangled six-year-old in Taxila two weeks ago.

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi police on Monday arrested two suspects for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl some two weeks ago in Taxila.

In a press conference held by SP Joya, the accused stood with their heads lowered and admitted to the crime. The accused, identified as Muhammad Amjad and Muhammad Qasim, live in the same neighbourhood as the victim’s family. Amjad said he would stare at the girl and had singled her out. The accused will be produced in court on Tuesday.

On September 25, one of the suspects lured the girl into a flat near her house while she was on her way home after school. They raped the girl at the flat and then strangled her, according to the police. The accused then dumped her body in an old well in an abandoned house and strewed garbage over it.

“The men offered money to a driver of a solid waste management vehicle to dump garbage inside the well to cover it completely,” said Potohar SP Haroon Joya. The driver got suspicious and informed his contractor about the offer who shared it with Sub-inspector (SI) Muhammad Zubair of the Taxila Police Station. SI Zubair arrested Amjad, who confessed to the crime during interrogation.

The police had taken him to the house where the body was buried and asked civic officials to clear the well. “Her body was discovered inside a bag,” said a police official, adding that Amjad also revealed the name of his accomplice, Qasim, during the investigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2013.