Main convict gets death in girl’s murder case

NOWSHERA: A local court awarded death sentence to the main accused on three counts and Rs0.3 million fine while the caucused was sentenced for life term and Rs0.2 million in the eight-year-old Hooz Noor rape and murder case on Wednesday.

The court of District and Sessions Judge Shehnaz Hameed Khattak after conclusion of arguments in the case delivered the verdict and handed down the death sentence to the main accused Abdar on three counts and Rs0.3 million fine and life imprisonment and Rs0.2 million to the co-accused Rafiqul Wahab.

Abdar, one of the two men accused of raping and murdering, had confessed to his crime.

Noor’s uncle Mian Yousaf Jahan had told the police that she went to Madrassa in Kaka Sahib but never returned home. The family then set out to look for her and found her being strangled by two men while they were attempting to drown her.

Later, medical reports from a local hospital also confirmed that the minor had been sexually assaulted.

Asjid Jahan, the father of the deceased minor, lodged a first information report (FIR) with the police.

The family handed over two suspects, Abdar and Rafiqul Wahab, to police. The suspects had allegedly drowned Noor in the water tank and when they saw people searching for her, they left her there and fled.

However, the victim’s family managed to apprehend the suspects who had allegedly confessed to killing the girl in a video. Both the suspects were then presented before a local jirga, which handed them over to police.

Following the horrific incident, the KP government had formed a 13-member parliamentary body, which has recommended publicly hanging convicts of child abuse.