Daily Times

KASUR: A new CCTV footage emerged on Saturday in the brutal rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab in Kasur which shows a suspected person roaming around the victim’s house on January 4. In the new footage, a bearded man bearing a resemblance to her abductor can be seen walking through the street where Zainab’s house is situated. The man is seen wearing a dark coloured cap with grey shalwar kameez and a brown jacket. Police, however, clarified that the man is only a ‘person of interest’ as of now. The new video will help make headway in the case as it is clearer compared to the footage available earlier, according to police.

In another development in the incident, three suspects have been reportedly arrested by the police which believes that the culprit did not act alone and had at least two abettors with him. However, the main suspect seen walking away with the girl is still at large. Zainab had left her house in the Road Kot area for her maternal aunt’s for religious lessons on January 4. She is believed to have been abducted en route. On Jan 9, five days after she disappeared, some labourers found her body from a trash pile. On Friday, police had confirmed that the results of DNA tests carried out in the case indicated the involvement of one culprit in at least seven similar cases that occurred in the district over the past year. The government on Friday had changed head of the joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe into the incident and appointed Multan’s Regional Police Officer Muhammad Idrees in place of Abu Bakar Khuda Baksh. The victim’s father had expressed reservations over appointment of Baksh as JIT head.

Published in Daily Times, January 14^th 2018.