LAHORE: A 12-year-old girl was abducted and raped by unidentified person(s), police said on Friday.

She was found unconscious outside her home situated along Hafeez Road. The victim was shifted to the Mayo Hospital in a critical condition.

Initial police inquires confirmed that the girl was raped after she was abducted two days ago when she was going to a market to purchase edibles. The family visited the local police station to lodge complaint of disappearance of the girl but no action was taken.

The relatives and locals gathered outside the Mayo Hospital and lodged a strong protest against police for not taking timely action.

The girl’s father told reporters that police even did not register a case of the missing girl on his complaint. He demanded that the rapist should be hanged publicly.

He said he and his family searched her everywhere but found no clue and they visited police officials who remained unmoved. On Friday, he said, his neighbours found the girl unconscious and alerted the family. Police reached the spot and shifted the girl to hospital where after examining her doctors confirmed that the girl was raped, he said.

Quoting initial inquiry, City Division Investigation SP Mohammad Naveed told Dawn that some unidentified person(s) had abducted the girl from a nearby market on Wednesday and took her to Kot Abdul Malik, Sheikhupura. He said the abductors raped the girl there and later threw her outside her house on Friday.

He said the police teams had taken 11 suspects, one from Lahore and 10 from Sheikhupura, into custody. He said police also collected some evidence from a house in Sheikhupura where the girl was kept for the heinous crime.

The SP said police would carry out DNA profiling tests of the suspects and the rape victim.

The chief minister took notice of the incident and sought report from police higher-ups.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2015

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