Pakistan: Lahore HC orders police to nab culprit behind 7-yr-old child's rape, murder within 36 hrs

Lahore: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered the police chief of Pakistan’s Punjab province to arrest within 36 hours the culprit behind the brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that shook the country. [caption id=“attachment_87860” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Provincial High Court in Lahore. Reuters[/caption] The LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, hearing a petition filed by an advocate to arrest the culprit, expressed  surprise that despite reports of earlier incidents of similar nature from Kasur district of Punjab province, none of the cases were brought to the court. The chief justice ordered the police to submit details of all the cases of child sexual abuse that had taken place in the area, adding that he would also demand a report on the cases from the sessions judge, the DawnNews reported. The chief justice warned that the court would not tolerate any delay in the case, at which the IGP assured him that the culprit would be caught.  The hearing was adjourned until 15 January. On 10 January, protests had erupted in Kasur after the child’s body was found in a garbage heap. Autopsy reports revealed that the girl was subjected to rape, torture and was then strangled to death.  The horrific incident triggered public outrage throughout the country with people demanding justice for the child. The girl’s murder was the 12th such incident reported in Kasur district in a year. Kasur had made headlines in 2015 as well when it was revealed that a gang of paedophiles was busted for running a child sex ring in the city. Meanwhile, the Punjab government appointed RPO Multan Idress Ahmad to head the probe, a day after the girl’s father demanded to change head of the joint investigation team (JIT) formed to investigate the horrific incident. Amid the nationwide outrage over the incident, a gatekeeper at a school in Karachi’s Ibrahim Hyderi area was taken into custody for allegedly sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl, the daily reported. Police said the gatekeeper had allegedly attempted to assault the child Thursday, after which she went home and told her parents.