MIRPURKHAS UMERKOT: The mother of a 14-year-old girl, who was allegedly gang-raped in Mirpurkhas and died during belated treatment at the District Headquarters Hospital on Wednesday evening, was remanded in police custody for interrogation along with a male suspect on Thursday.

The victim was taken to the hospital due to profuse bleeding and initial police inquiry suggested that she had been subjected to sexual assault for several days before her death. A post-mortem report of the victim was awaited till late Thursday evening.

The mother was arrested from within the limits of the Dilbar Mahar police station in Sindhri taluka, Mirpurkhas, and the male suspect from a locality in Umerkot.

The arrests came when the victim’s sister revealed that she (the victim) was taken away from home by the male suspect “with the consent of their mother” and was brought back home after about a week.

The FIR was registered against the mother and male suspect at Dilbar Mahar’s women police station on behalf of the state.

Four other suspects were detained on Thursday for interrogation after Sindh Minister for Social Welfare Mir Tariq Talpur directed the Mirpurkhas SSP to conduct an investigation and get arrested all those found involved in the matter.

SSP Shabbir Ahmed Sethar accordingly constituted a five-member inquiry team headed by DSP Fazal Haq Chandio with Sindhri DSP Aamir Siddiq Bhatti, CIA Inspector Mohammad Raheem Khosa, women police station SHO Momal Leghari and Dilbar Mahar SHO Sanjay Kumar being its other members.

The committee is supposed to submit its report within the next 48 hours.

Meanwhile, the Balochabad UC chairman was quoted as telling the media on Thursday that a long delay in taking the victim to the hospital seemed to be one of the factors leading to her death. He noted that rescue teams did not timely reach the victim despite repeated calls made to them while she was in a critical condition.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024