Two wedding hall workers arrested in minor’s rape case

Karachi

The police team investigating the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl, whose body was found in the underground water tank of a wedding hall in Orangi Town a day earlier, arrested two suspects in connection with the case on Monday.

SSP West Azfar Mahesar said police traced the location of two missing employees of the wedding hall who were present in Sakrand and Tando Allahyar in interior Sindh.

A police team was
dispatched to the two towns and Azhar was nabbed in Sakrand while the other, whose name was not disclosed, was arrested in Tando Allahyar, and brought to Karachi.

The official said there was third suspect in the case and the police were trying to locate him.

Eight other employees of the Shehnai Marriage Lawn are already in custody for questioning.

The SSP said the FIR filed on the complaint of the girl’s father, Faizur Rehman, had been amended to include the sections of murder and rape.

On the night of January 25, Faizur Rehman and his family were attending a wedding at the Shehnai Marriage Hall when his minor daughter went missing.

The family searched for the girl and announcements were made through mosque speakers but these efforts went in vain.

The next day, the family approached police and had a missing person complaint registered.

On January 28, an FIR was registered at the Orangi Town police station under Section-363/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code that pertains to the kidnapping of children. The case was later referred to the investigation unit.

A police investigation team twice visited the hall, searched its rooms and also questioned its staff and owner but no leads were found.

On Sunday morning, the investigation team visited the hall for the third time and asked for the location of its underground water tank.

The tank was located under the hall’s A-portion, a carpet covering its lid. The investigators noticed a foul smell emanating from the tank.

They told the staff there to remove its lid and found the child’s body in the tank.

When the child’s family and residents of the area learnt about the discovery of the body, an enraged mob reached there and torched the hall, destroying its furniture and other equipment.

The medical examination of the body revealed that the child was tortured and raped.

The police said child was apparently kidnapped during the wedding, taken to some other location where she was raped and then her body was dumped in the tank when the hall was empty.