HARIPUR: An additional sessions judge on Monday convicted a man for sexually assaulting a minor family member here and handed down 15 years imprisonment and Rs1 million fine to him.

According to the prosecution, Sohail Ahmad, a 35-year-old resident of Gulu Bandi village in Hattar area, had sexually assaulted a nine-years-old girl, his cousin, in Aug 2021.

The police records showed that the suspect was booked under Section 377-B of the Child Protection and Welfare Act for the offence on the complaint of the girl’s father.

The suspect was later taken into custody.

Additional sessions judge IV Asghar Ali heard counsel for both petitioners and respondents and examined evidence produced before him and convicted Sohail Ahmad for the sexual offence.

The girl’s lawyer, Gulnaz Rasheed, told reporters that the convict was her client’s cousin, so his family pressured the family of the assault victim through local jirgas for an out-of-court settlement, but the latter refused to forgive him.

FOUR INJURED IN ACCIDENT: Four people, including a woman, were critically injured in two road accidents here, the police said on Monday.

The Khanpur police said that Gul Nazar and his wife, Tehmina Bibi, were on the way to Taxila by a motorcycle when it was hit by a car coming in from the other side near Khoee Maira.

They added that the couple was shifted to the Khanpur tehsil headquarters hospital. The other road accident was reported in Pind Hashim Khan village.

The police said that Noor Ahmad and Bilal suffered critically wounds when a recklessly-driven pick-up truck hit a motorcycle they rode head-on.

The residents shifted the injured to the trauma centre but were referred to the Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad, over serious injuries.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022