Four relatives arrested for raping, killing minor girl

Four suspects who allegedly raped and killed an 11 years old girl on March 24 were her relatives, with two of them her maternal uncles, in Bahawalpur district.

Sadar police chief Agha Fasihuddin said the culprits were traced by police teams with the help of geo fencing, using the latest technology.

He said a special investigation team, constituted by district police officer (DPO) Asad Sarfraz Khan, immediately cordoned off the crime scene with the help of officials of the Crime Scene Unit and Punjab Forensic Agency and a search operation of adjacent 50 houses was carried out.

The data of each family member of these cordoned-off houses was collected and they were interrogated. Out of the family members of 50 houses, 25 members were short-listed.

After the interrogation of 25 family members of different houses, 15 suspects were picked up and their DNA tests were sent to Lahore.
During the DNA process, the interrogation of these suspects in police custody continued and after the receipt of DNA results, four suspects were identified and were arrested.

The suspects in their initial statement before the investigation officer (IO) confessed to committing the crime.

According to their confessional statement, they said they raped the eleven-year- old girl and then murdered her in the sunflower fields to hide their gruesome act.

The girl had gone out of the house to fetch water from a nearby hand-pump in Basti Baqirpur in the suburbs of Bahawalpur city.

The Sadar police registered the case on the complaint of the victim’s mother. Her post-mortem examination’s initial report had also confirmed the rape.