Public hanging of accused sought in rape case of minor girl

MANSEHRA: The people from civil society and traders have taken to streets demanding the arrest and public hanging of the accused who allegedly assaulted a four-year-old girl in Pakhwal area here on Monday.

Holding banners and placards, the protesters assembled outside the press club and chanted slogans, demanding the arrest of the accused. “The government should send the accused to the gallows,” Shakeel Awan, the president of the traders’ body told the protesters. The protesters dispersed peacefully following Deputy Superintendent of Police Bashir Khan assured them that the accused would soon be arrested. Qazi Jamilur Rahman, Deputy Inspector General of Police Hazara Range told reporters that the police were after the accused. The DIG said he had ordered District Police Officer Mansehra Sadiq Baloch to arrest the accused at the earliest. The grandfather of the victim girl lodged the FIR with the City Police Station. He alleged that one Abdul Sattar assaulted his four-year-old granddaughter. He said the accused was identified through the footage of a closed-circuit camera installed at the Major Ayub Road. The victim girl was initially hospitalised at Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad. She was later referred to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital. Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had ordered the police to arrest the accused forthwith. “The time has come to publicly hang the accused in rape cases. The federal government is introducing a piece of legislation to discourage this scourge,” he added. “The accused has been nominated in the FIR and the police are conducting raids to arrest him,” he said.