MANDI BAHAUDDIN: Police in Punjab’s Hafizabad district said on Saturday they have arrested one of the suspects for the alleged rape and kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl.

The arrested suspect was named in a first information report (FIR) registered by the Jalalpur Bhattian police on April 30 on the complaint of the victim’s mother. The FIR also nominated two unidentified suspects.

Constable Waqar Yousuf, a spokesperson for Hafizabad Police, told Dawn that the prime suspect was arrested last night in the district’s Tahli Goraya village.

Yousuf further said that the girl’s medical examination had been conducted, which provided evidence of sexual assault. The policeman added that the detained man was being interrogated in order to arrest the other two suspects.

The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, invoked sections 375-A (rape) and 365-B (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel for marriage etc) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

In her complaint, the mother said she found her daughter crying outside her school in Jalalpur Bhattian when she went there to give her breakfast.

According to the FIR, upon inquiring, the daughter told her mother that when she left for school, two unknown men on a motorcycle approached her and forcibly took her to a house in Alampura.

At the house, the arrested suspect subjected the girl to rape, while the two unidentified suspects patrolled outside the room, the FIR quoted the victim as saying. The suspects later dropped the girl off outside her school, the complaint added. Subsequently, the mother sought legal action against the suspects.

According to a report issued by the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) in 2024, the national level conviction rate of rape stood at a mere 0.5 per cent.

On Tuesday, police in Vehari district booked a farm owner on the charge of attempting to rape a girl. Earlier this month, a man in Okara was convicted of rape and sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) along with a fine.