KARACHI: A 10-year-old homeless girl, whose family came to the metropolis from their hometown in Shikarpur in the aftermath of the floods, was kidnapped and gang-raped in Clifton, police said on Monday.

The incident prompted Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to take notice of it after which the Karachi police chief constituted a special committee to investigate the case and bring the perpetrators to justice.

South-SSP Syed Asad Raza said that the police registered a case on the complaint of the victim’s widowed mother.

The police said that she and her mother lived on a footpath near the Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine in Clifton.

CM orders police to bring culprits to justice

Quoting victim mother’s statement to the police, the SSP said that she originally hailed from district Shikarpur and due to recent floods she along with her six children had come to Karachi and was trying to make ends meet. She lived on a footpath in Shah Rasool Colony and fed herself and family from the food distributed at the Ghazi’s shrine.

Narrating her ordeal, she told police that on Sunday morning, at around 11:12am, her daughter went to a Clifton shopping mall for begging. When she came back at around 2pm, her shalwar was stained with blood. On being asked, the girl told her mother that two men forcibly took her to an unknown place in their car and subjected her to a criminal assault. Later, they left her at the same place from where they abducted her and escaped.

Later, she was brought to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed told Dawn that about nine- to 10-year-old girl was brought to the JPMC emergency in a serious condition at 6:30pm on Sunday. The girl was moved to the National Institute of Child Health (NICH), where she was examined by a woman medico-legal officer.

“The examination revealed violent rape along with physical injuries,” the police surgeon said, adding: “Swab samples and clothes have been sealed for serology and DNA matching.”

The police said that the victim girl was still under treatment at the health facility.

The Boat Basin police registered a case against unidentified persons under Sections 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of fourteen), 376 (punishment for rape) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s mother.

Police told to take family into ‘protective care’

Taking notice of the rape, the CM directed the police to arrest the culprits forthwith.

He also directed Women Development Minister Shahla Raza to take the entire family into protective care.

“This is totally unacceptable and cannot be forgiven. I want the culprits behind bars immediately,” he told Karachi police chief Javed Odho over the phone.

The CM was informed that a police team had been formed to arrest the culprits.

The chief minister directed the city police chief to check the CCTV footage, identify suspects’ vehicle and arrest them.

The CM was informed that the family was kept at a women police station under protective care.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022