KARACHI: Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested a schoolteacher for his alleged involvement in the rape of a 14-year-old student.

SSP-West Faizan Ali told Dawn that a case was registered against the teacher on the complaint of the victim girl’s family.

He said that the police were waiting for the report of her medical examination to proceed further in the matter.

He said that the parents told the police that their daughter was given tranquiliser by the suspect, who took her to an abandoned place in Khuda Ki Basti and subjected her to a sexual assault.

Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed told Dawn that teenage girl was examined at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where she was brought by Investigation Officer Shamshad Hussain with the history of sedation (by injection) and subsequent sexual assault.

She said that the girl told the examining medico-legal officer that she had been given some unknown intoxicant in drinks and by injections by the suspect for the past two months. The victim girl said that she was not going to school for the past 10 days.

“Her examination was unremarkable for physical and sexual injuries,” the police surgeon said, adding that blood sample and swabs had been collected for chemical analysis, serology and DNA.

Meanwhile, Women Development Minister Syeda Shehla Raza took notice of the schoolgirl’s rape and directed the police to take strict legal action against the suspect.

The minister also talked with the girl’s father and assured him provision of full legal assistance.

She observed that anti-rape laws should be made further stringent as ‘habitual sexual offenders’ did not deserve any leniency.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2022