MUZAFFARABAD:A judicial magistrate in Neelum Valley of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), on Monday remanded a 54-year-old man in police custody for six days after he was arrested for kidnapping and raping a teenage girl, while also threatening to kill her if she raised alarm.

According to Neelum Valley’s SP Khawaja Mohammad Siddique, the suspect, a mason from Jagran, intercepted two sisters — aged 14 plus and 11 — on Saturday afternoon as they were on their way to visit their maternal aunt.

Pretending to give them a lift, he instead drove them to Muzaffarabad and checked into a hotel on old Kutchery Road at 7:19pm, introducing the children as his daughters.

Ironically, the accused paid the hotel bill from the money the girls were carrying with them.

Inside the hotel room, he intimidated the girls with death threats and sexually tortured and raped the elder sister throughout the night, while her younger sibling, exhausted from the journey, fell asleep.

The girls’ parents, frantic when their daughters did not return home, searched the area in vain before approaching Athmuqam police station in the early hours of Sunday to report their disappearance.

The accused checked out of the hotel at 8am and put the sisters on a Neelum valley bound passenger coach, instructing the driver to drop them at Kundal Shahi, the gateway to Jagran area.

SP Siddique said police were “completely blind” about the girls’ fate but launched a vigorous search, checking records of vehicles at entry and exit points along the Neelum Valley road.

Meanwhile, the sisters reached Kundal Shahi, and were taken by their parents to their home. Reportedly, some people tried to initiate a jirga to ‘settle the issue locally’. However, when police got information about the appearance of girls, they brought them to the police station, and ascertained vital information from the victim about the assailant’s appearance and the hotel where the crime occurred.

“A police team was rushed to Muzaffarabad, and within a short time they located the hotel. From its registers and CCTV footage, the suspect was identified,” the SP said, adding, he was arrested with the help of Muzaffarabad’s city police station from Tanga Adda neighbourhood by the evening.

The man was charged under Section 377-A of the Azad Penal Code, which saysthat whoever commits rape or unnatural offence with a minor shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, or castration along with imprisonment which may extend to ten years and fine, which may extend to Rs 5 million but shall not be less than Rs 2 million.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2025