Daily Times

Rawalpindi: One of two alleged rapists of a teenage boy was arrested on Sunday in the Bank Colony area of Dhamial in Rawalpindi district.

The 14-year-old son of a cleric at a local mosque was heading to the seminary on Friday when he was allegedly abducted and raped in a nearby field by two youths.

Following the incident, a first-information report (FIR) was registered against the suspects identified as Chaudhry Arbab and Raja Adil.

According to the FIR, the suspects had threatened to kill the victim if he resisted. They had also recorded video footage of the alleged assault.

The victim’s father told a private news channel that the suspects had blackmailed the family, saying they would release the video if a compromise was not reached.

He claimed the police took action only after the congregation he leads found out about his son’s ordeal and staged a protest outside the Saddar Bairooni Police Station.

Station House Officer (SHO) Malik Rafaqat confirmed that a case had been registered against the suspects and that a medico-legal examination of the victim had been conducted. He added that the examination report would reveal whether the boy was raped or not.

The police conducted raids and managed to arrest Raja Adil, one of the two suspects.

The other suspect, Chaudhry Arbab, who, according to SHO Rafaqat, is a close relative of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Chaudhry Nazeer, is still at large.

Since the beginning of 2018, there has been a marked upsurge in the reporting of sexual abuse cases across Pakistan. The brutal rape and murder of a minor girl in Kasur earlier this month in particular shocked the entire country, with #JusticeforZainab becoming the rallying cry in a nationwide drive to end violence against children.

Published in Daily Times, January 22^nd 2018.