LAHORE: A man who was recently identified as one of two suspects in the gang rape of a woman who was dragged from her car on a motorway and attacked in front of her children, surrendered himself to police on Sunday and denied involvement in the crime, officials said.
The woman, who police say is in her early 30s, was driving late on Tuesday night outside Lahore with her two children when her car ran out of fuel. She phoned police for help, but before they arrived two men took her and her children out of the vehicle at gunpoint and raped her beside the highway.
“Waqarul Hasan, one of the two people accused in the motorway rape case, turned himself in and denied any involvement in the incident,” Hasnain Haider, deputy superintendent police, told Arab News. “We are investigating further to determine the veracity of his claim.”
The incident enraged people who used social media platforms to express their fury and pressure the government to identify and punish the culprits. Protests were held in several Pakistani cities over the handling of the investigation, prompting police to say on Saturday they had launched a manhunt for the suspects.
“We have managed to identify the real criminals in the case in less than 72 hours,” said the province’s chief minister, Usman Buzdar, while addressing a news conference in Lahore on Saturday.
Punjab Inspector General Police (IGP) Inam Ghani, who was also present at the occasion, said that Abid Ali, who lives in a small town in Bahawalnagar district, was the primary suspect in the case. The province’s top cop also identified Waqarul Hasan as Ali’s accomplice, saying that the police were “95-96 percent” sure of his presence at the crime scene.
Ghani added that the police conducted raids at the houses of the two suspects, though they evaded arrest since “the information had gone into the public domain” and they had “definitely received the tip-off” that the police were behind them.
According to official accounts, Ali was identified since he was already involved in a similar case in Bahawalnagar in 2013 and his DNA results in the police database matched the evidence collected in the tragic motorway incident.
Ali was released from prison in the previous case after the family his victim compromised with him.
However, Hasan, the second suspect, was identified through a SIM card issued in his name that was located at the crime scene through geo-fencing.
“There are four telephone SIMs in Abid Ali’s name, but he was not using anyone of them,” said a press statement issued by the CM office. “The police traced another number and managed to identify the other accused, Waqarul Hasan, by using that.”
Officials told Arab News that the Punjab Forensic Laboratory had been asked to take Hasan’s DNA sample since it was not available with the police.