LAHORE: The Senate Committee on Human Rights reportedly expressed its displeasure over police failure to arrest the other prime suspect in the motorway gang-rape case even after three weeks of the incident.

Senate committee convener Senator Quratulain Marri and Senator Keshoo Bai visited the crime scene where the woman was gang-raped by two alleged rapists Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali on Sept 9 in front of her three children when she was going back to her home in Gujranwala from Lahore.

Civil Lines SP Investigation Asadur Rehman and SP Operations Safdar Raza Kazmi accompanied the senators to the crime scene.

A source said the police officers briefed the visiting team and said they had arrested one of the two prime suspects. However, the Senate committee was dissatisfied with police’s version after they were unable to answer a question as to why police had failed to arrest absconder Abid Malhi.

Around a week after the brutal incident, the Senate Committee on Interior had raised 30 questions for the Punjab police to reply regarding the tragic gang-rape incident. But most of the questions were yet to be answered, the source said.

Earlier, Shahzada Sultan, the head of the investigation team formed by the Punjab government, briefed the senators at a meeting held at the secretariat. He apprised them of the progress in the case and the efforts made by the Lahore police for the arrest of the absconding criminal.

Lahore investigation officer Zeeshan Asghar, a focal person appointed by the Punjab police chief to brief the media persons on the incident, declined to comment on the visiting senators’ reservations.

However, a senior police official said Abid Malhi could be hiding in rural or far-flung areas of the province to avoid arrest. He said police experts prepared a detailed profile of the suspect after questioning his family members, relatives and friends.

About his whereabouts, he said, the police authorities had decided to relax deployment and security besides picketing in and around the districts where he may be hiding. This strategy was adopted to give him a space to leave his hideout.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2020