RAWALPINDI – A man has been arrested over alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in Gujar Khan district of Punjab on Saturday.
Police said the accused, identified as 18-year-old Adnan, was taken into custody after he allegedly abused Zainab in Chakrali Badhal village.
The lead investigator and in-charge Qazian Police Station, Raja Aizaz Azeem told Daily Pakistan that the victim was transferred to a local hospital for medical checkup.
Further investigation will be initiated following the medical report, the officer added.
The incident follows the kidnapping, rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari in the eastern city of Kasur.
Zainab disappeared in January while returning from a Quranic studies class to her aunt’s house; five days later, her battered corpse was discovered in a garbage dump nearby.
The girl’s death led to violent protests against alleged police inaction in Kasur, as well as the cities of Lahore and Karachi. Two people died in the clashes with the security forces.
She was the eighth child to have been found raped and murdered in the Punjab district over the past year.
Imran Ali, 24, who has also been linked to murders and sexual assaults of other girls in the region, was given four death sentences in February.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/justiceforzainab-atc-to-announce-verdict-in-kasur-rape-murder-case-today/
Forensic evidence linking Ali to the girl’s murder was presented in court and witnesses testified against him.
He was given death sentences for kidnapping, rape, murder and an act of terrorism, according to reports, as well as a life sentence for sodomy.
In August 2015, Kasur came to the world’s attention via a child abuse and extortion scandal involving at least 280 children who were filmed while being sexually abused by a gang of men. The men then blackmailed the children’s parents by threatening to release the videos. The scandal sparked countrywide condemnation and anger against authorities.
Already, in the days since Zainab’s abduction, a similar case came to light in northwest Pakistan — this time with an even younger victim, a girl of 4 named Asma. Her body was found in a sugar cane field in Mardan with signs of strangulation and rape. Her father was away at the time, working as a construction labourer in the Middle East.
The prime accused, Muhammad Nabi, confessed his crime before a court last month. The accused, a 15-year-old boy, is a relative of Asma.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/asmas-rapist-and-murderer-turns-out-to-be-a-15-year-old-boy-from-mardan/
According to a report released by War Against Rape (WAR) that at least four women are raped every day in the South Asian country, where such incidents remain sorely underreported. According to official process, the DNA matching of the victim and the suspects is now mandatory.
