Explanation demanded: CM directs Nowshera DPO to submit report on toddler’s murder

Three-year-old Sawera’s tortured and raped body was found on Friday.

PABBI:

Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak has sought a report from the Nowshera district police officer (DPO) regarding the rape and murder of a minor in Pabbi.

Three-year-old Sawera’s tortured body was found on Friday evening in a field near her house in Mohallah Khan Sher Garhi.

According to Pabbi police SHO Khalid Khan, Sawera, the girl left her house on Thursday to purchase candies from a shop nearby and did not return. The family led by the girl’s father began a search for her but night fell and still the child had not been found.

The SHO added that announcements were made through loudspeakers from the area’s mosque about the missing girl but those remained unanswered as well.

“She was found dead on Friday evening in a field and her body bore marks of torture, including deep cuts,” said Khalid.

The child’s body was shifted to Rashid Shaheed Memorial Hospital for an autopsy, however, the doctors sent it to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Nowshera because of the unavailability of a female doctor.

Requesting anonymity, an official at the DHQ told The Express Tribune that the child had been sexually assaulted and severely tortured before being killed.

SHO Khalid said an FIR had been filed against unidentified culprits and an investigation was under way. He added the shopkeeper of the store Sawera was headed to had been arrested on the basis of suspicion.

The child’s father had appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government for justice and on Saturday the CM took notice of the incident and sought a report from the DPO.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2014.