Two key suspects arrested in orphan girl’s gang rape case

Police arrested two key suspects late on Tuesday night – one in Karachi and another in Tando Allahyar -- who had allegedly gang-raped a nine-year-old orphan girl after abduction in the upscale Clifton locality a day earlier.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon announced the arrest of one of the key suspects in Karachi. “The Sindh Police arrested the culprit who was involved in the rape of nine-year-old flood victim girl. Arrest was made with the help of CCTV cameras,” he said in a tweet.

Memon further said that the incident had taken place in Clifton, and the culprit had been arrested in the Defence area. It was also reported that another key suspect was arrested in a raid in Tando Allahyar, and arrangements for the medical examination of the suspects had been completed.

The suspects were said to have been arrested with the help of the registration number of the car that had been used in the abduction of the girl on Monday. Investigations SP Zahida Perveen, while talking to The News, confirmed the arrests of both the key suspects, saying that one Ghulam Rasool was arrested in Defence, and his companion was taken into custody in Tando Allahyar. One of them is a driver and the second is his friend. The car used in the incident was also impounded.

Earlier, police investigators were questioning five detained people, who confirmed the abduction of the girl from Shikarpur. The gang rape of the nine-year-old took place on Monday in Block 4 of Clifton, after which the girl was shifted to hospital where she remains under treatment in an unconscious condition.

A case was registered against unknown suspects on the complaint of the victim’s mother. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had also taken notice of the incident and directed the police to immediately arrest the culprits.

On Tuesday, the condition of the girl was said to be out of danger, but a detailed official statement could not be recorded as she remained unconscious. The investigators recorded the statement of a watchman of a nearby mall who had last seen the girl before she was abducted. “I saw the girl talking to drivers. Two people in a car asked me where to get the ration from, and I told them about one store. During this time, the girl went and sat in the car,” the watchman, who is among the five detainees, said in his initial statement to the police.

With recording the statements, the police suspected that the girl might have sat in the car after being told that she would be given ration. “The investigation is underway and we have so far been able to determine where the girl was kidnapped, but it is yet to be determined where she was actually raped,” District South Investigations SP Zahida Perveen told The News. She said the girl was abducted from the parking zone just opposite the shopping mall.

“She [the girl] is traumatised mentally and physically and cannot record her proper statement right now. We are looking to record her formal statement, which would definitely be helpful for investigators in probing the case,” SP Perveen said.

Talking about the detainees, she said those who have so far been included in the investigations are helping the police in probing the incident and their testimonies have confirmed that the girl was kidnapped by persons in a car. “It is confirmed that she was gang-raped but it is yet to be ascertained whether the rapists were two or more than two,” she said.

The family of the victim had come to Karachi from the Shikarpur district of Sindh due to floods. The woman and her children had been sleeping on Clifton Road, and they would go to Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine to eat charity food. On orders from Karachi’s additional IG, a committee, headed by District South SSP Asad Raza, has been formed and it is investigating the incident.

Shehla meets victim

Sindh Women’s Development Minister Syeda Shehla Raza, along with Sindh Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Nuzhat Shirin, visited Jinnah Hospital and inquired after the health of the rape victim.

She said increasing incidents of child molestation underlined the need to hand down the strictest punishments to the criminals. Raza instructed the doctors to provide all medical facilities to the girl. She held out the assurance that all possible legal assistance would be provided to the mother of the victim and the culprits would be arrested soon.

The minister said the girl was not affected by the monsoon floods. She said the girl’s father had passed away, and the mother was fed up with poverty and came to Karachi with her five children.

She suggested that the police should introduce strict legal provisions to register cases of incidents of abuse, and that the courts should also give severe punishments to convicted criminals.

She the society was paralysed due to such savage beasts, and parents should not leave their children at the mercy of such beasts and should take care of them. An outsider can harm your children, but in most cases of child abuse, close people are also involved, she said.