MARDAN – An accused named in the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl has been sentenced to life in prison by an anti-terrorism court in Mardan.
Muhammad Nabi was handed a life term on Monday for the rape and murder of Asma, who breathed her last in January 2018; he also has to pay Rs1 million as a fine to Asma’s family.
The girl was reported missing from the Gujjar Garhi area and was recovered dead the next day from nearby sugarcane fields. Her postmortem report had confirmed rape and murder.
Contrarily, the former Inspector General (IG) Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Salahuddin Mehsud had claimed that the accused had unsuccessfully attempted rape before murdering the girl.
On February 12, Nabi, who was also Asma’s second cousin and lived in the same area as her, had confessed to murdering her before the court of senior civil judge Asim Riaz.
Mardan Regional Police Officer (RPO) Dr Mian Saeed said that the case was resolved by tracing a drop of blood on a leaf in the sugarcane field where the minor was killed, Khyber News reported.
The police officer said that the fingerprint traces of the suspect were found on the neck of the deceased, and the weapon used for the crime was also recovered.
Dr Saeed continued that the suspect attempted sexual assault on the four-year-old but the minor resisted by shouting for help following which Nabi strangulated her.
