TOBA TEK SINGH: A known industrialist of Faisalabad, his son Hamza and three employees had been booked on Tuesday on the charge of murdering a 17-year-old girl employed as domestic help at the industrialist’s house.

In the first information report (FIR) registered by Faisalabad’s Millat Town police on the complaint of Ghulam Abbas Shah of Chak 362-GB, Jarranwala, under sections 302, 147 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code, (PPC), the complainant says his daughter Maria, 17, was employed as domestic help at the house of Sheikh Khurram Mukhtar, a known industrialist, for the last eight months.

Abbas stated that Maria informed him on telephone that she had been raped by the suspects.

He said later he received a telephone call and the caller told him that Maria was unwell and he (Abbas) was asked to reach a private hospital located on the Canal Road.

17-year-old victim’s father alleges she was raped

The complainant said when he reached the hospital he found his daughter lying dead on a stretcher, with bleeding from her nose and ears and “visible marks” of strangling on her neck.

He claimed the suspects confessed before him that they had strangled Maira to death.

Abbas stated that despite protest by him and his family members, the suspects forcibly shifted his daughter’s body to his native village (Chak 362-GB) in an ambulance.

He said when he reached the village and informed Millat Town police about the situation, the police shifted the body to hospital for autopsy.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by Faisalabad City Police Officer (CPO) Syed Khalid Mahmood Hamdani said three of the five suspects, who were the industrialist employees – Rashid, Babloo and Noaman Masih – had been arrested.

The press release did not mention whether the industrialist and his son Hamza Khurram Mukhtar, both nominated in the FIR, were deliberately not arrested or had gone underground.

It also did not mention whether police were conducting any raids to arrest the influential suspects.

The CPO, however, said in the press release if rape was confirmed in the autopsy and the postmortem examination reports, the relevant sections would also be added to the murder FIR.

He claimed that investigation of the case would be carried out on “pure merit” and the culprits won’t be spared.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2022