Category: Crime

A man in Lahore allegedly raped a teenage factory worker and killed him by pumping air into his belly in the Kahna area of the city.

Geo News reported that the 15-year-old boy was killed after being raped.

Dawn reports that Hassan Ali was an employee at a factory.

Police say that the victim was shifted to a hospital in critical condition and eventually died.

The suspect has been arrested, and a case has been lodged against him.

Hassan’s father, Nadeem Iqbal, lodged the FIR with the local police and named Shazor as the primary suspect, who also worked at the same factory as the victim. He allegedly raped the boy on the premises of the industrial unit.

The boy’s father has stated in the FIR that the deranged accused pushed air into the victim’s stomach, which ruptured his abdomen.

He also said the factory management initially tried to mislead him by saying his son died after he suffered injuries at work.

Hassan’s father urged the police to ensure that the culprit was punished.

An initial report by Dawn suggests that in November 2019, a similar incident was reported in the Kahna area, where a blind street beggar was also allegedly murdered by three suspects in the same way.

Sahil, an organisation working for the protection of children’s rights, released a Six Month Cruel Numbers data early in August, revealing that a total of 1,630 cases of child abuse were reported from across the country.

The data also shows that out of the total reported cases, (962) 59 percent of victims were girls and (668) 41 percent were boys.

The data shows that the most vulnerable age group remains children aged 6-15, with 693 cases reported in this bracket. Additionally, 94 cases involved children aged 0-5, 231 children were from the 16-18 age bracket, and in 612 cases, the age of the victims was not mentioned.

In the year 2024, January-June, the abusers involved in 47pc of the total cases were acquaintances, 18pc were strangers, while nine per cent of acquaintances, along with strangers, committed crimes against children.

In the first six months of 2024, 78 per cent of the total cases were reported from Punjab and 6pc from the ICT. The rest of the cases were reported from other provinces, including 11 per cent of cases from Sindh, 3pc cases from KP, and 2pc cases from Balochistan, AJK and GB.

Out of the total reported cases, 44pc were from urban areas, and 56pc were from rural areas.

A local court in Faisalabad has given the death sentence to four police officials and imposed a fine of Rs one million on them for their involvement in a fake police encounter that happened six years ago in the Millat Town area of the city.

Additional and Sessions Judge Sajida Akhtar announced the verdict. The alleged encounter took place on August 8, 2018, at approximately 9:00 pm in Millat Town, Faisalabad.

The fake encounter resulted in the deaths of two people, Arsalan Liaquat and Usman Munawwar, under disputed circumstances.

The police officials convicted in the case include ASI Javed Akhtar, Head Constable Asghar Ali, Constable Falak Sher, Constable Faisal Rehman, and Police Qaumi Razakar employee Waqas.

However, the court acquitted an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) who was also nominated in the case due to a lack of evidence against him.

The court remarked that it found sufficient evidence to convict Asghar Ali, Waqas, Falak Sher, and Faisal Rehman, sentencing them to death and imposing a fine of Rs one million each.

The complaint was filed by Sajid Mahmood, a resident of Panjore, who nominated the police officials for killing the two boys.

The prosecution argued that victims Arsalan and Usman were riding a motorcycle and were on their way to Bagh Wali Pully near Millat Town after having shawarma when they were stopped by the police team, who then opened fire on them, resulting in their death.

After a six-year-long legal battle, the court ordered the immediate arrest of the four convicted officers, who were later sent to jail to serve their sentences.

The News report from 2018 says that the deceased were college boys and had no criminal record.

A housemaid in Karachi knocked her employer unconscious and stole valuables worth thousands of dollars and gold ornaments.

Geo News reports that the incident took place in Defence Khayaban-e-Bukhari, where the housemaid knocked the homeowner unconscious, looted the house and escaped.

According to the police, the incident took place on October 23, in which the housemaid stole two million Pakistani rupees, 10 thousand US dollars and 32 tolas of gold jewellery from the house.

The CCTV footage of the escaped maid was found, and it can be seen that the masked maid was running away after committing the crime while carrying a bag full of cash and gold ornaments, which was also seen in the maid’s hand.

The maid escaped in a rickshaw after walking some distance from the house.

A gang of technologically advanced robbers looted gold and cash worth over Rs15 million from a house in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore after they successfully jammed Bluetooth and wireless signals for cell phones, GPS and Wi-Fi by using special blocking devices.

The gang of five escaped via the motorway and then took an exit from a Faisalabad interchange while special teams were waiting to catch them at the exit points in Islamabad and Sargodha.

The police from various cities of Punjab, however, failed to trace and arrest the criminals despite multiple efforts.

The incident

Reports suggest that five masked men brought a special device to disrupt the operations of all mobile phone services in the vicinity of around 100 meters, which left the family without any option of contacting the police or any other for help.

The house is located in DHA Phase 4, and it is owned by a retired Superintendent of Police (SP), Rana Azeem, who rented it out to a tenet family of Mubashar Ahmed.

Ahmed told the police that five armed men with masks on their faces forcefully entered his residence on Tuesday midnight.

The dacoits held the family hostage in a room and collected 35 tola gold, including bangles and locket sets worth over Rs 8.75 million, 12 branded watches valued over Rs 1.3 million, a cash of Rs3.5 million, along with other valuables. In total, they took away Rs15.5 million worth of valuables.

Three of them were carrying rifles, and two others were with pistols.

Ahmed claimed that one of the robbers seemed to be between 65-70 years and one 50 years of age.

The initial investigation revealed that this was the fourth house robbery by the same gang during 20 days in Defence Block A and Block C.

They used a Honda Civic car in all the instances with fake registration number plates.

After robbing the house on Tuesday, however, the robbers fled via motorway.

Statement of the police

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Imran Kishwar of Organised Crime Unit (OCU) Lahore stated that the robbers had reached near Sherakot by the time the family alerted them, after which an encounter took place with the SHO concerned and his team, but the “robbers opened fire, hit the police barriers and managed to reach the motorway.”

The police had installed pickets at the exit points of Islamabad, Sargodha and some other districts, but the tech-savvy robbers took a surprise exit from Faisalabad and disappeared.

“We are on a hot pursuit of the hardened criminals and will round them up soon,” DIG Kishwar asserted.

However, the DIG stated that the Punjab police had contacted the Dera Ismail Khan police as reports suggested that the suspects might go underground there.

The post-mortem report of Dr Shah Nawaz Kunbhar, the blasphemy suspect killed in a fake police encounter in Mirpurkhas, has been made public.

It reveals that the slain doctor suffered torture as four of his ribs and the shoulder bone were broken.

The front part of the body, the skin of the face and the head were found burnt as well.

The report was presented in the Sindh High Court, which reveals that the nails of both hands and feet of Dr. Shah Nawaz were partially burnt as well.

The court was informed that the final report would be submitted after the results of samples of other parts of the body were received from laboratories in Islamabad and Karachi.

On October 14, the Sindh government ordered to exhume the body of Dr Shah Nawaz Kunbhar under a special medical board supervised by Umerkot Judicial Magistrate Aamir Rajput in his native village, Jainro to take samples of 13 parts of the slain doctor’s body.

Police officials who have not been arrested

The News reported that the judges at the division bench of the Sindh High Court’s Mirpurkhas chapter, Justice Amjad Bohiyo and Justice Khadim Hussain, expressed anger at the failure of police officers to record statements.

The judges asked how the statements of suspended DIG Javed Jaskani, suspended Mirpurkhas and Umerkot SSPs, and CIA in-charge Inayat Zardari would be recorded when they had not been arrested.

However, the petitioner, Ali Palh, claimed before the court that the police officers were not arrested because of their influence.

The High Court, thus, expressed a lack of confidence in the Mirpurkhas police and handed over the investigations of the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Palh told the media that under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022, even the FIA would be supervised by the National Commission for Human Rights – a neutral body.

He noted that it was the first time that police were accused in a torture case, and it was a victory for the people that fake encounters with the police have been identified.

Background

On the night of September 18, 2024, the Sindhri Police claimed the death of Dr Shah Nawaz, a resident of Umarkot, in an alleged encounter.

Later, the murder case of Dr Shah Nawaz was registered at Sindhri police station as it was claimed that he was killed in Mirpurkhas on the alleged charge of blasphemy, in which the provisions of murder and anti-terrorism were also added.

While giving a press conference in Karachi on September 26, 2024, the Sindh Interior Minister admitted that the encounter was “fake”.

DIG Mirpurkhas, SSP Mirpurkhas and SSP Umarkot were suspended after the report of the Inquiry Committee of the Sindh Government was revealed.

A case was also registered against 45 other people, including police personnel and a cleric.
On October 11, the Sindh Human Rights Commission submitted a report to the Sindh government on the killing of Dr Shahnawaz on the charge of blasphemy, in which it was stated that the SSPs and DIGs of Mirpurkhas and Umarkot also denied the arrest of the doctor. However, they admitted that the accused was arrested from Karachi.

The report said technical assistance was not taken from the FIA ​​after the trial, while the post-mortem report of the victim was not done for 2 days as the Medical Officer went on leave.

The report also demanded the formation of a Joint Investigation Team to identify those responsible for Dr Shahnawaz’s murder.

On October 15, the Sindh Home Department wrote a letter to the Registrar of the Sindh High Court and requested an inquiry from the serving judge of the Judicial High Court regarding the death of Dr. Shahnawaz.

This resulted in the hearing that was held on October 21 by the circuit bench of Sindh High Court’s Mirpurkhas chapter in which the investigation of the case was given to FIA.

Read more: Blasphemy suspect killed in police encounter; body burnt by mob

Three minors, including two siblings, have reportedly been assaulted during the last two days in Haripur, reports Dawn.

Police have said that one accused, allegedly a prayer leader, was arrested while the man charged in the other FIR is still at large.

The police told Dawn that the father of the siblings complained that his 11-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter learnt the Holy Quran from Qari Qamar Zaman, the prayer leader accused of assaulting them.

“The two children informed me on Friday that their teacher, who is also a native of the same village, assaulted each of them three to four times during the last few days intermittently,” the complainant stated in the FIR.

The prayer leader serves in a mosque in Mohallah Choee Pind Hashim Khan.

The FIR states that the suspect repeated the act on Friday afternoon, took the minor boy to his sleeping room situated within the premises of the mosque, and assaulted him.

A case was registered under section 376 of PPC and section 53 of the Child Protection Act.

The police confirmed that Qari Qamar Zaman has confessed to sexually abusing the two children. The initial medical examination of the victims at Haripur Trauma Centre proved the claims of assault.

However, the case will proceed based on the final report of the Forensic Science Laboratory.

In a similar incident, a gang of criminals allegedly abducted a school-going teenager and subjected him to sexual assault.

The 16-year-old boy, identified as Luqman Shah, lodged a complaint with the police, stating that he was a student in 9th grade at a government school in Haripur.

“On Friday when I was on way to my home after school time a boy from the same village offered me a ride, but instead of taking me to the village he took me to the house of one Gustasib alias Usama Kohistani in Mohallah Rasheed Abad and disappeared. After some time Gustasib forcibly assaulted me at gunpoint and warned me of dire consequences if I shared the ordeal with my parents,” he told the police.

The victim’s family alleged that the suspects have support from the police.

Express Tribune reported that local police have allegedly started supporting the suspect because he is in cohorts with the police.

The teenager was abducted at gunpoint by a person named Taseem Ali and taken to the place of Gastasab who sexually assaulted him.

The local police registered a case against these suspects, but the Investigation Officer (IO) and his fellow Moharrar provided relief to the accused party.

Gastasab has been charged under section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The other two suspects who abducted the victim and brought him back after the assault were not included in the FIR.

Express Tribune reports that the police has a history of giving these criminals a room of relief in previous instances as well.

The gang kidnaps innocent school and college students and threatens them. Meanwhile, their motorcycles bear police number plates.

Waqar Malik, the maternal uncle of the victim, alleged that Gustasab’s uncle is posted as the Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) at the City police station while relatives of other gang members are also posted on various posts in the local police.

Meanwhile, the people of Haripur have demanded that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General, the Hazara division Deputy Inspector General and the Haripur Deputy Police Officer should immediately take notice of this matter.

The video of a nursing college student with a bandaged wrist and a branula sticking on one hand has been circulated widely on social media. The girl claims to have tried to take her own life due to the Principal’s verbal abuse.

Syeda Iman Fatima claims to be a student of Public Health at Lahore’s Fatima Jinnah Nursing College. She allegedly attempted suicide after being harassed by the college principal.
In the video, she is seen saying that her principal used abusive words for her and demoralized her by objecting to her character.

“It’s not just me, she behaves the same with all the students. I couldn’t tolerate this, so I went to my room and tried committing suicide,” Imaan says in her statement.

She also claims that she stayed in the hospital for one whole day, but the college administration did not call her parents despite her requests. The student pleaded to Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz to intervene. “It has been five to six months that Madam [principal] has been doing this.”

Geo reports that DG Nursing Tahira Sagheer said that the first-year nursing student tried to commit suicide due to the inappropriate words and harassment of the college principal, but fellow nurses stopped the student from cutting her wrist.

She confirmed that the student belongs to Gujranwala and has requested leave from the principal.

“An application has been submitted by the student to the health secretary, and a hearing will be held with him tomorrow,” she said.

The principal, student and eyewitness nurses have been called in, and action will be taken if the allegations are proven to be true, DG Nursing stressed.

The evidence collected by a seven-member committee formed by the Chief Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, has presented its finding in the Punjab College alleged rape case. The committee, headed by Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Zaman, said that the alleged rape incident of a student was based on fake news that was viral on social media.

The nine-page report was prepared by the committee members, including the Punjab Chief Secretary, Advocate General Punjab, Home Secretary, Higher Education Secretary and Special Education Secretary.

The News reported that the social media post that resulted in violent protests by students in front of various campuses of Punjab Colleges pushed the government to impose Section 144 across the province.

During the formulation of the report, the committee recorded the statements of the alleged rape victim and her parents, who categorically denied that such an incident took place.

They further informed the committee that the girl got injured at home, leading to her being admitted to a private hospital for treatment. They also said that the girl had never been a student of the said campus and that she did not attend the college from October 2 onwards because of her injury. The college record also complied with this statement.

The committee also quoted statements from 16 individuals, which were recorded on October 15 and 16.

These were recorded by Lahore police officials and officials of General Hospital, Evercare Hospital and Ittefaq Hospital in Lahore.

The committee recommended curbing fake news on social media.

“Students need to handle their affairs in a positive manner,” said the report and emphasised that students should distinguish between positive and negative activities.

It also advised parents to protect their children from exploitation.

The report emphasised that there is dire need to enhance the capacity of law-enforcement agencies.

The committee recommended further investigation into the hate-related issues regarding the alleged incident. It also pointed out that influencers and vloggers should be prevented from spreading chaos in society.

The report says that innocent students were targeted through fake news with a demonstration.

A police official gunned down his 16-year-old daughter in a graveyard near Bagan Shah Bukhari’s tomb in Qambar-Shahdadkot.

Safeer Buriro’s honour killing of his own daughter was reported in the early hours of Wednesday.

Safeer is a resident of Dalil Buriro village located in the jurisdiction of Drigh police station.

Karo-kari

Dawn reports that the cop took his daughter to the graveyard and brutally killed her under the practice of ‘karo-kari’- an indigenous term for honour killing.

Whether the suspect used a service rifle or another weapon is still not clear.

However, Dawn’s sources claim that the suspect fired at her face.

The was shifted to the nearby district headquarters hospital right after the incident before being handed over to the girl’s maternal uncle, Mumtaz Ali Buriro.

No FIR has been registered as yet.

Karo-kari is a common practice in Sindh where women are alienated or, worse, killed by people for dishonouring the so-called honour of the family.

Earlier, a polio worker was denied entry into her home by her husband which was described as kari after he found out she was sexually assaulted while on duty.