ISLAMABAD: The chief of Punjab police said on Monday one suspect in the gang-rape of a mother traveling with her children on a highway last week had been arrested after a manhunt that spanned several days and involved multiple raiding teams, DNA testing and the use of cell phone data.
The woman, believed to be in her thirties, was traveling on the motorway outside the eastern city of Lahore 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.
“With the grace of Allah and the scientific analysis of evidence found on the crime scene, Punjab police has arrested one of the suspects in the Lahore-Sialkot motorway rape case, Shafiq Ali, son of Allah Ditta, resident of Haroonabad, Bahawalnagar,” Punjab’s Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani said on Twitter.
He said Ali’s DNA matched DNA found on the scene of the rape, adding that another suspect, Abid Ali, would also soon be arrested based on DNA tracing.
اللہ کے فضل وکرم، جائے وقوعہ سے ملنے والے شواہد کے سائنسی تجزیے اور تفتیش کی روشنی میں پنجاب پولیس نے لاہور سیالکوٹ موٹر وے زیادتی کیس کے ملزموں میں سے ایک ملزم شفقت علی ولد اللہ دتہ سکنہ ہارون آباد، ضلع بہاولنگر کو گرفتار کر لیا ہے۔
— Inam Ghani PSP QPM & Bar (@InamGhani) September 14, 2020
Usman Buzdar, the chief minister of Punjab, also announced Shafiq Ali’s arrest on Twitter and said the hunt was on for Abid Ali.
لاہور - سیالکوٹ موٹروے کے دلخراش واقعہ میں خاتون سے زیادتی میں ملوث شفقت علی گرفتار ہو چکا ہے، جس کا ڈی این اے میچ کر چکا ہے اور اس نے اعتراف جرم بھی کر لیا ہے.
ملزم عابد علی کی گرفتاری کے لیے بھی ہماری ساری ٹیم مسلسل کوشاں ہے جس کی گرفتاری انشاء اللہ جلد متوقع ہے!— Usman Buzdar (@UsmanAKBuzdar) September 14, 2020
Violence against women is endemic in Pakistan, but the brutality of the recent attack has shocked even those inured to the rising wave of sexual crimes and prompted thousands of take to the streets in protest over the weekend.
