ISLAMABAD: Taking suo-motu notice of the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl, Asma in Mardan on January 14, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) IGP to submit a report within 24 hours. The CJP issued the orders after the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) in its DNA report concluded that the girl was raped before being killed. According to reports, the minor girl was playing outside her house in Gujjar Garhi area of Mardan when she was abducted by an unidentified assailant on January 13. A day later, she was found dead in a sugarcane field near her house. The local authorities and doctors had expressed the suspicion that the girl was assaulted before she was strangled. According to PFSA Director General Dr Muhammad Ashraf Tahir, the tests were carried out on the samples of DNA taken from the deceased’s body and crime scene. He confirmed that the minor girl was raped before she was killed. He said the DNA of one person was found on Asma’s body, which confirmed the rape, adding that the next stage in the investigation would be to match the DNA samples taken from around 200 people in the case to track down the suspect. KP IGP Salahuddin Mehsud had earlier said that police were awaiting the DNA report as the medico-legal report had left certain things unclear.
Published in Daily Times, January 27th 2018.
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