Court extends physical remand of four suspects in foreign women's assault case

A Lahore court on Monday extended the physical remand of four suspects by four days in a case involving the alleged kidnapping and rape of two foreign women.

Police produced four suspects, including the prime suspect Ahmad Raza Dar, before the court, where the investigating officer told the court that mobile phones and the vehicle allegedly used in the incident had been recovered from the suspects.

The investigating officer said that the recovery of money was still pending.

Three suspects — Sikandar Aziz Khan, Hassan Raza Sajid Ali — were represented by advocate Salman Shahid during the proceedings. No lawyer appeared on behalf of Raza Dar.

After hearing the arguments, the court extended the suspects' remand by four days to facilitate further investigation.

The case stems from a first information report (FIR) registered at Lahore's Defence C Police Station against five suspects for the alleged kidnapping, extortion, and sexual assault of two foreign nationals — a Venezuelan and a Dutch.

On July 5, Lahore DIG Operations Faisal Kamran said the two foreign women arrived in Lahore on June 29 and were allegedly kidnapped soon afterwards.

He had said that police launched an investigation after tracing the vehicle involved and examining its travel history through Safe City cameras. He said the vehicle was tracked as it travelled via the motorway to Sargodha, while raids were also conducted in Shahdara and Defence.

According to DIG Kamran, the first ransom call was received on July 1 from a man identified as Carlos, who informed police that Spanish authorities had also been notified. He added that the Safe City Authority received a call on the emergency helpline the same day.

He said four suspects were arrested on July 2 after police traced phone numbers, vehicle details and location data.