Daily Times

MARDAN: The district government of Mardan has summoned an all parties’ conference (APC) on Friday over the brutal rape and murder of a four-year-old girl.

According to details, the jirga of elder people in the area has also given an ultimatum of 72 hours to the government to arrest the culprits. Earlier, police personnel had arrested as many as 20 suspects in the case.

The girl’s body was found three days ago after which her medical test was conducted that confirmed rape. However, her blood sample was also sent to forensic laboratory in Lahore for further verification.

The Mardan DPO said that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), under his supervision, has been formed to probe the case. He said few people have been taken into custody while geo-fencing of the area was also underway.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari strongly condemned the mishap and declared it a horrible crime. He demanded the authorities provide justice to the bereaved family.

According to Mardan District Nazim Himayatullah Mayar, the child was murdered after being raped.

The district nazim said that he had seen the postmortem report and it clearly stated that the minor was raped.

However, Mardan DPO Mian Saeed claimed the girl was strangled and the post-mortem report did not point towards rape.

Mayar alleged that the police were trying their best to hide the postmortem report.

According to the police, the girl had gone missing after she left her house a day earlier. Police have also formed an investigation team to probe the incident.

PM’s adviser Ameer Muqam condemned the incident. “The cases against minors have become quite problematic for the entire country,” he said.

Lashing out at the PML-N’s political opponent Imran Khan, he said that this incident showed the ‘brilliant’ performance of Imran’s police.

Before this, two innocent girls were killed after rape in the area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak’s constituency, he said.

“Imran’s concept of justice changes in different provinces. His consciousness is awakened only in Punjab while he turns a blind eye towards injustice in KP.”

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak visited the bereaved family of four-year-old Asma on Thursday. The CM assured the family that all possible help would be extended to them.

Published in Daily Times, January 19^th 2018.