MANSEHRA: The local lawyers on Saturday announced that they wouldn’t provide legal assistance to those accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl before killing her in Dabgrat area of Oghi tehsil the other day.

“We [lawyers] have decided not to plead the case of the alleged abusers and killers of the 12-year-old girl,” Oghi Bar Association leader Waheed Khan told reporters on Saturday.

Accompanied by a group of lawyers, Mr Waheed said his community would extend all-out support and cooperation to the girl’s family to claim justice.

He demanded exemplary punishment for the accused.

Another lawyer, Waqarul Mulk, said those sexually abusing and killing girls deserved no mercy to stop others from thinking about committing that heinous crime.

Also in the day, newly-appointed district police officer Irfan Tariq visited the girl’s family and assured it of the early dispensation of justice through punishment of the culprit.

He said the suspected culprit had no accomplice and had been arrested by the police.

The DPO said the police had secured a two-day physical remand of the accused from a local court.

On the occasion, SHO of the Oghi police station Wajid Khan said the accused, who had speech impairment, had confessed to his crime during preliminary investigation.

He said the girl had gone to a forest close to her house to graze goats and sheep on Friday morning but was found dead there in the evening.

The medico-legal examination revealed that she was sexually assaulted before being killed by stoning.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2022