Nowshera child abuse suspect says raped girl 'as revenge for when her uncle raped me'

NOWSHERA: The primary accused in the Nowshera rape case confessed to raping the seven-year-old girl "as revenge for when her uncle raped me", Geo News reported on Thursday.

The accused claimed that the deceased minor's uncle had raped him twice in his apartment, after which he approached the girl. When she refused to fulfil his request, he threw her in the water tank and, later, when she tried to escape, he strangled her to death, he added.

After her family found the dead body, "they took me to their house and roughed me up", he said.

A day earlier, one of the two men accused had confessed to his crime in a local court before both were sent on a judicial remand. The other had pleaded not guilty.

Also read: One of two accused in Nowshera child rape case confesses in court

Speaking to Geo News, the district police officer (DPO) for Nowshera, Kashif Zulfiqar, said: "The child’s DNA has been sent to Khyber Medical College and, for better results, we have also sent the samples to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA).

"The accused’s blood samples have been sent to Lahore,” he added.

CM Mahmood forms committee to probe incident

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in this regard formed a committee to probe the incident and directed it to prepare recommendations and legal drafts for punishments in a month.

The CM also chaired the committee's session on Thursday where the police officials investigating the case informed him that the DNA samples had been sent to the PFSA, the results of which would be available in a week.

A prosecution committee was also formed in the meeting; it was ordered to prepare legal drafts for severe punishments pertaining to similar cases.

“We will go to any lengths to make the province safe for children,” the CM added.

Caught red-handed

The two men had been caught red-handed late last week in the city's Ziarat Kaka Sahib area as they tried to drown and killed the seven-year-old after allegedly raping her earlier, police had said.

While registering the first information report (FIR), the deceased's paternal uncle had told police that she had gone to madrassa but never returned home.

At nighttime, during their search for the girl, they had discovered the two accused strangling and attempting to drown her in a tank. She had already passed away by the time she was retrieved.