Arrest Zainab’s killer in 72 hrs: SC to cops
lahore — The Supreme Court on Sunday gave a 72-hour deadline to the Punjab police chief to arrest the culprit behind the brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that has sparked national outrage.
Police have failed to nab the killer of Zainab, whose body was found in a garbage heap on January 9, despite carrying out DNA test of 800 suspects in over two weeks.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar held the hearing of the case at the Lahore registry and admonished the police officers for their failure to arrest the killer of the victim.
The parents of the eight girls who have been raped and murdered in Kasur since 2015 appeared before the Supreme Court bench and pleaded for justice.
“An unspeakable crime has been committed against an innocent girl,” Nisar said and ordered the Inspector-General of Police to arrest the culprit within 72 hours.
Zainab had gone missing while going for tuition near her house in Kasur city, some 50km from Lahore, on January 5. Her parents had been in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and she had been living with her maternal aunt.
After her abduction, the footage showed her walking with a stranger near Peerowala Road. Police failed to trace her abductor and on January 9 her body was recovered from a heap of garbage near the Shahbaz Khan Road.
Autopsy report had confirmed 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.
A police officer told the Chief Justice that the DNA tests of 800 suspects had been conducted.
“The police are pursuing a onetrack investigation and must widen the scope of the probe beyond simply using DNA testing to track down the culprits. The DNA tests of 21 million people will have to be conducted if the investigations continue in this way,” Nisar said.