Motorway incident: Victim identifies rapists during parade

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Combo shows motorway rape suspects Abid Malhi (L) and Shafqat Ali (R). The victim of the Lahore motorway incident has identified the perpetrators in presence of magistrate and jail staff. Photo: File

LAHORE: Motorway rape victim has identified prime suspect Abid Malhi and his accomplice Shafqat Ali during an identification parade held at Camp Jail, The News reported on Thursday.

According to sources in the police department, the suspects were presented before the victim in line with at least ten others during the parade.

Read more: Suspect Abid Malhi discloses details of how he evaded arrest for a month

The victim had to identify the perpetrator in presence of magistrate and jail staff.

Abid Malhi, the prime suspect in the motorway gang rape case, was arrested from Manga Mandi after at least 33 days of hectic manhunt throughout the province by Punjab Police.

He was then sent on a 14-day judicial remand by a Lahore court to hold an identity parade.

The key suspect Abid Malhi along with his accomplice Shafqat Ali had allegedly gang-raped the woman in front of her children on Lahore-Sialkot Motorway on September 9.

The incident occurred when her car ran out of petrol near Gujjarpura on the motorway while she was on her way back to Gujranwala from Lahore's Ring Road at 01:30 am.

Read more: Woman robbed, raped after the car ran out of petrol in Lahore's Gujjarpura

The woman waited for her husband and phoned a relative for help, who advised her to call the Motorway Police. 

She subsequently called the Motorway Police's 130 emergency helpline for assistance but was told by the operator that she could not be provided help as the emergency beat had not been assigned to anyone.

While she was stranded on the road, two unidentified armed persons arrived on foot from a nearby area and smashed the window of her car, forcing the woman and her children out of the vehicle. 

They then cut through the fence along the motorway and raped the woman in the fields nearby in the presence of her children, the FIR of the incident revealed.