Daily Times

SARGODHA: With riots triggered by perceived police inaction over the rape and murder of 6-year-old Zainab Amin continuing throughout the day in Kasur, the alleged murderer and rapist of an 8-year-old child was killed in Punjab’s Sheikhupura district by police on Wednesday night.

Police say Shiraz Arif Raja had abducted, raped and murdered 8-year-old Maliha, whose body was found in a pile of trash on January 4 stuffed in a gunny bag.

Maliha, who had been visiting Sheikhupura to spend winter vacations with her maternal uncle’s family, had gone missing on December 29.

According to the police, Raja was killed during a shootout that broke out during a police operation to take the suspect into custody.

A first investigation report of the incident was registered the Farooqabad Police Station.

Police officials said they had headed to arrest the suspect upon receiving a tip-off about his location, but when they reached the spot, the suspect and three of his accomplices opened fire, which resulted in a shootout.

Raja was shot and killed during the exchange of fire. Police claim that the bullet that took the suspect’s life came from one of his own accomplices, all three of whom managed to flee the scene.

The suspect’s body has been shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Sheikhupura for a postmortem examination.

Meanwhile, the body of a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered was recovered from a field in Tasawarabad, some 40 kilometres from Sargodha, as the country reels from the brutal murder of seven-year-old Zainab in Kasur.

Sajida, a resident of Tasawarabad Chak No. 15 NB of tehsil Bhalwal, went missing this morning. Her father alleged that she had been sexually assaulted and killed.

District Police Officer (DPO) Sargodha Chaudhry Sohail reached Tasawarabad as protests against the murder were underway and assured the victim’s father that the culprits would be taken to task.

Police claim to have arrested a prime suspect in the case. Identified as Noor Ameen, the suspect confessed to Sajida’s murder but denied the accusations of rape. He did not, however, deny the accusations of attempted rape.

Police said that the truth would be uncovered after a postmortem examination, and the DPO directed police to shift the body to a hospital for the examination. The DPO added that he would bear all the funeral expenses of the deceased.

In November 2017, a 10-year-old street vendor Ali Raza was sexually assaulted and murdered in the jurisdiction of the same police station. The victim’s father protested as police avoided registering a case, after which Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the incident and suspended the station house officer and deputy superintendent police of the area.

In Bhalwal tehsil, a 7-year-girl was abducted while going to school and later found dead in the fields. Her killer was arrested and killed in a police encounter around four months ago. Similarly, the alleged murderer and rapist of an 8-year-old child whose body was found in a pile of trash on Jan 4 was killed in a police encounter in Sheikhupura on Wednesday night.

Published in Daily Times, January 12^th 2018.