LAHORE: A senior Pakistani investigator who is part of the team carrying out a manhunt for suspects in the recent gang rape of a mother said on Monday the main suspect in the case had escaped being caught during a police raid because media furor alerted him to police zeroing in.
Protests were held in several Pakistani cities over the weekend over the handling of the investigation into the gang rape of a mother traveling with her children on a highway last Tuesday, as police launched a manhunt for the suspects which they said they had identified through DNA tracing.
Punjab’s Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani said at a press conference on Saturday that police had used cell phone data to track 27-year-old suspect Abid Ali and carried out raids at a village near Punjab’s Sheikhupura district to arrest him.
Prior to the raid, local media channels began running Ali’s photos and other identification documents, which tipped him off and he fled, a senior official who is a part of the team leading the manhunt told Arab News.
“If the media had not run off with the news provided by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency about the suspect, we would have caught him,” the official, who requested anonymity, said. “We missed him by mere seconds.”
He also blamed the Punjab police for prematurely sharing the names and photos of the suspects with the media.
The IG’s office and the spokesperson for the Punjab police did not respond to multiple calls seeking comment for this piece. Shehzada Sultan, Deputy Inspector General Investigations, and Zeeshan Asghar, Senior Superintendent Police Investigation, who are on a six-member investigation team commissioned for the rape case, could also not be reached.
For his part, IG police Ghani has held the media responsible for “alerting” the suspect.
“Unfortunately, since this [information about the suspect] had come out in the public domain, the suspect knew we were getting close,” Ghani told reporters.
Police say the woman, believed to be in her thirties, was traveling from Lahore to Gujranwala, main cities in Pakistan’s populous Punjab province, on Tuesday night 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.
'Missed by seconds': Investigator says media furor tipped off suspect in Pakistan rape case
https://arab.news/rxee7
'Missed by seconds': Investigator says media furor tipped off suspect in Pakistan rape case
- Prior to police raid in a village this weekend, local media channels began running Abid Ali’s photos and identification documents, which led him to flee
- Member of investigation team blames Punjab police for prematurely sharing names and photos of suspects with media
Pakistan reports new polio case, taking 2025 tally to 31
- The virus infected a four-month-old girl in KP’s North Waziristan district
- Symptoms were detected in December last year, health authorities said
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported a new case of wild poliovirus in its northwest, taking the country’s total number of polio cases in 2025 to 31, health authorities said on Tuesday, highlighting the persistence of the disease in high-risk areas despite vaccination campaigns.
The latest infection was confirmed in a four-month-old girl from North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, which detected wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in laboratory samples.
“The child had onset of symptoms in December, and subsequent samples collected from her were positive for WPV1, the lab reported this week,” said the statement. “Therefore, this is the 31st case of 2025.”
Last year, Pakistan reported 20 cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, according to health authorities. Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounted for more than half of Pakistan’s WPV1 cases in 2025, with 17 of the country’s 31 cases reported from the region.
“Ongoing security challenges have limited consistent access for polio teams in parts of southern KP, including North Waziristan, resulting in persistent immunity gaps and leaving children vulnerable to this paralytic disease,” the statement said.
It added that it was critical to ensure that every child is reached with the polio vaccine in every house-to-house campaign and has received full doses of routine immunization.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis, mainly in children under five.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.
