Daily Times

The Lahore High Court (LHC) Wednesday ordered senior officers – including Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani – to patrol for two hours every night in all district.

The LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan conducted hearing on case pertaining to formation of judicial commission in the motorway rape case and remarked that every senior officer must be on road from 11:00 PM to 01:00 AM.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Legal Jawad Dogar appeared before the court with report.

Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan said, “The patrolling system of police has failed. People of the province need security. The family of any person, killed or wounded on state’s property, should be paid money according to the dayyat [blood money] agreement.

“For how many days and hours will the Punjab IGP patrol? Police officers remain at home but claim that they are on duty. If I do not work as chief justice of the LHC, a civil judge in Taunsa will also not work. The court will not bear any negligence regarding security matters.”

The LHC summoned counsels of all parties for arguments during the next hearing.

Meanwhile, the investigators have traced one more First Information Report (FIR) against one of the prime suspects in motorway gang-rape case, Abid Ali, over his alleged involvement in a robbery case on Wednesday.

Earlier, the Punjab government and provincial police department had confirmed that Abid Ali had been nominated in eight cases across the region. It emerged that overall nine cases were registered against the suspected criminal who is also accused of gang-raping a woman on Lahore’s link road.

The latest discovery was made after the investigators found Abid Ali and Babar Ali’s nomination in dacoity cases at Faqirwali police station. Babar Ali is the brother of another suspect, Shafqat Ali, in the gang-rape case.

The FIR 19/529 filed on October 23 – 2019 stated that Abid, Babar and his accomplice had robbed the house of a widow.

Earlier, the prime accused in motorway gang rape case Abid Ali had been arrested four times previously over his involvement in various criminal activities.

According to sources privy to details, the accused, Abid Ali, is a paid killer and had murdered people in exchange for Rs 25,000. “Besides working as a shooter, he is also in touch with various absconders,” they said.

The sources claimed that police had carried out raids in various parts of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces including Samundri, Bahawalpur, Nowshera, and Bahawalnagar to arrest him.

Moreover, the police had released three suspects in the case, Abbas and his two brothers, while their relative Waqar is still in the police custody and his fate would be decided after report of his DNA test.

The prime suspect in Lahore’s motorway gang-rape case had been identified as 27-year-old Abid Ali s/o Akbar Ali whose DNA sample was matched with evidence collected from the victim who had been sexually assaulted in front of her children last week on Lahore-Sialkot road.

Sources said the investigators traced a previous criminal record of the prime suspect, ‘a resident of Fort Abbas’ which revealed him as a serial rapist and his involvement in various robbery incidents.

The suspected criminal along with accomplices had also raped two women including mother and her daughter in 2013 after storming into their house.

Police have gotten the CNIC of the absconding prime suspect of the gang-rape on the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway blocked to keep him from fleeing abroad.

According to the police, Abid, who still remains at large, will not be able to travel out of the country after his identity car having been blocked on their request.

Meanwhile, sources relayed the police have persuaded the victim woman to visit the jail where the arrested suspect is detained to complete the procedure of identification parade which would be held in presence of the jail authorities and a judicial officer. The police said the identification parade is essential to take the case to its logical conclusion. agencies