Polio worker’s sister kidnapped, later found unconscious

PESHAWAR: A teenage girl accompanying her sister during an anti-polio vaccination campaign in Sheikhan village near the boundary with Khyber Agency was seized and taken away by unidentified people and left unconscious in a graveyard several hours later.

Locals said the 15-year-old girl was accompanying her sister who was carrying out polio vaccination campaign in the Sheikhan area when someone kidnapped her from outside a house. Her family searched for her for hours and finally she was found abandoned in the local graveyard.

The victim was unconscious and taken to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar for medico-legal report.

A police official said the victim told officials that she was waiting for her sister outside a house when an unknown person put his hand on her mouth after which she fell unconscious. The victim said she remained unconscious and found herself in a graveyard later.

Police officials said the medico-legal report of the girl did not show that she was sexually assaulted. They said investigation is being conducted to find as to who seized her and what the motive was.

Policemen normally accompany polio vaccination teams due to threats from militants for the last many years. However, this polio team sent to Sheikhan in a place close to the tribal region of Khyber Agency was not accompanied by any cop when the girl was forcibly taken away.

“Due to shortage of police strength, we have divided areas into sensitive and less sensitive places. Policemen are deployed with every team in the sensitive areas while in other places, the police cordon off the area and ensure patrolling but every team is not accompanied by the cops,” Senior Superintendent of Police Operations Javed Iqbal told reporters.

About 80 Pakistanis on duty during polio vaccination campaigns in the country since 2012 have been killed in attacks by suspected militants. Most of the assassinations have taken place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Our correspondent in Mansehra: A minor boy was allegedly sexually assaulted in Salabat area of Oghi tehsil of the district on Saturday.

“We have started raids for the arrest of the suspect who sexually assaulted a boy and managed to flee,” Israr Shah, the head muharrir of Oghi Police Station, told reporters.

The victim, 5, had gone with his grandmother to fields and was allegedly trapped by Mohammad Usman to a nearby place where he allegedly sexually assaulted him.

Shah said the victim’s family took him to the police station after he revealed what had happened to him.

He said the police lodged an FIR under section 377 of Pakistan Penal Code after medico-legal report confirmed the sexual assault.