LAHORE: As the city police chief announced the arrest of the prime suspect in a minor girl’s rape case that occurred days ago, another 10-year-old mentally challenged girl was allegedly raped by an unidentified suspect in the Chiragh Shah area of North Cantonment, the police said on Tuesday.

The victim’s father registered a complaint with the South Cantt Police on Tuesday, after which a case was registered under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code, leading to the suspect’s arrest.

According to the FIR, the victim, who had gone out of the house on Monday afternoon, returned home at around 1:30pm with blood stains on her clothes.

“My sister gave her a bath. Later in the day, she told me that my daughter was sexually abused by someone,” the FIR quoted the complainant as saying.

Incident follows last week’s rape-cum-murder of another girl, CCPO claims prime suspect nabbed through DNA, polygraph tests

Last week, a minor girl, also 10 years old, was allegedly raped and murdered by a swimming pool owner in Lahore’s Manawan area.

The police have found that in both cases, the rapists were strangers to the victims and their families.

In the Chiragh Shah incident, the victim left her home to play in the street when a stranger lured her and took her to a deserted place near her house, where he allegedly raped the girl and fled.

A police official said as the girl came back to her home, her aunt noti­ced some blood spots on her clothes.

A thorough examination revealed the evidence of rape and the aunt alerted the girl’s father, who was at work at that time. He rushed home and brought the matter to the police notice.

Lahore Cantt Operations SP Eesa Sukhera — who visited the crime scene with Investigation SP Imran Kramat Bukhari — told Dawn the victim was mentally challenged and it was a tough assignment to get from her the details of the incident.

Mr Sukhera revealed that the rapist was an elderly man, who was later traced and arrested with the help of witnesses and CCTV footage. The victim also confirmed the man’s identity when shown his picture, he said.

“We traced the prime suspect’s location, raided and took him into custody from Bedian Road,” the senior police officer said, adding that further investigation was under way.

Manawan incident

Earlier, in a press conference on Tuesday morning, Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Additional IG Ghulam Mehmood Dogar said the police had resolved the rape-cum-murder case of a minor girl and arrested the prime suspect, an owner of the swimming pool. He said the heinous crime occurred in the Manawan area a week ago.

Flanked by Investigation DIG Athar Ismail, Investigation SSP Imran Kishwar, Admin SSP Atif Nazir and other senior police officers, the CCPO described it as a heartbreaking incident and said the alleged rapist, Ali Raza, lured the girl by offering biscuits and then took her behind the canteen where he raped and then strangulated her.

He then threw her body in the swimming pool to make the heinous act look like an “accidental death”, claiming later that she drowned in the pool.

The incident went viral on social media, attracting the attention of the Punjab chief minister and other authorities, who directed the Lahore police to use all available resources to trace the apparently blind murder case.

Mr Dogar said the police teams were formed with directions to the DIG and SSP investigation to supervise the case and investigate it scientifically.

Initially, the swimming pool owner told the deceased girl’s siblings that she had gone back to her home but later pretended that the girl had drowned.

The conflicting statements alerted the police.

The CCPO said DNA and polygraph tests of 11 suspects were conducted to reach the prime suspect.

Similarly, samples taken from the victim and accused Ali Raza were also sent to Punjab Forensic Science Agency.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2022