BAHAWALPUR: The Nowshehra Jadid police have collected blood samples of 25 suspects for DNA tests after the preliminary post-mortem report of an eight-year-old girl stated that she may have been raped before murder by unidentified people who kidnapped her.

According to police reports, the eight-year-old had disappeared three weeks ago while going to her relatives’ house in the village near Hatheji. Her body was found in nearby fields two days after the disappearance.

On the complaint of her father, police had registered a case against six suspects, who, according to him, had kidnapped and murdered her over a marriage dispute in his family. Police had claimed to have taken two out of the six suspects into custody.

Now, according to police sources, after the initial post-mortem report, they obtained samples of 25 people from the locality to identify the real culprits. Police circles told Dawn that the DNA tests were necessitated after the post-mortem report indicated that the minor had been raped.

Further action would be taken after obtaining the DNA report, police officials said.

ACID ATTACK VICTIM: A man who was attacked with acid near Uch Sharif over a month ago died of his wounds on Saturday night at Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH).

According to police sources, Inam was subjected to an acid attack on Aug 29 allegedly by his cousins, Muhammad Riaz and Dilshad, over a family dispute and was admitted to the BVH.

Uch Sharif police said that after Inam’s death, Section 302 of the PPC was added to the first information report of the case against his cousins.

After post-mortem examination, police handed over his body to his family on Sunday.

LION’S DEATH: An ailing lion died at the local zoo on Saturday. According to curator Ali Usman Bokhari, the 24-year-old lion, Lahori, was shifted here from Lahore zoo about 16 years ago. He allegedly fell ill owing to his age and was provided treatment, but could not survive.

Bokhari said the lion had several cubs that were sold and shifted to a number of zoos across the province. Lahori was popular among visitors, particularly schoolchildren.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2019