ISLAMABAD: Punjab police have widened their investigation into the rape of a five-year-old girl in Lahore and collected swabs for forensic analysis and DNA tests.

A report submitted here on Saturday to the Supreme Court by Punjab police chief Khan Baig in compliance with an order of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who had taken suo motu notice of the incident late on Friday night, said the swabs collected from the Services Hospital, Lahore, will be sent to the Forensic Science Agency for analysis and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) tests would also be conducted.

The suo motu notice was taken following public outcry after the girl was found unconscious outside the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore.

The doctors referred the child to the Services Hospital where she was admitted to the intensive care unit. Doctors there confirmed that she had been raped.

The report said the Lahore capital city police officer was supervising the investigation that was being monitored by the inspector general.

Since the case is of heinous nature, two teams have been constituted to pursue it.

SP (Investigations) Civil Lines Imtiaz Sarwar is leading a team comprising Mughalpura DSP Nasir Mahmood Bajwa, the police station’s investigation in charge Inspector Muhammad Adil and Sub Inspector Zakaullah. SP (Organised Crime) Muhammad Umer Virk is heading the other team that comprises the wing’s Lahore Cantonment DSP Muhammad Daud, Sub Inspector Mushtaq Ahmed and Civil Lines Assistant Sub Inspector Nadeem Shah.

Both the teams have obtained CCTV footage from the hospital where the girl was left at about 8.30pm. It shows a suspect carrying her and then leaving her near the hospital.

The case has been registered and all the officers from the city police chief down to the level of the investigation officer have visited the scene and met the girl and her parents in the hospital.

Initial investigation revealed that the culprits kidnapped the girl and her three-year-old cousin Ahmad Yar on Sept 12 while they were playing in the street at about 6pm.

The girl is the daughter of a resident of Ghousia Colony, Mughalpura, and works as a driver for Wapda.

He has six sons and four daughters.

The boy was dropped in the lawn of the Services Hospital at about 6.30pm and was spotted by a person who informed Constable Nadeem who was deployed at a police post at the hospital.

The constable made an announcement in the hospital but no one claimed the child. The boy was later handed over to officials of the Child Protection Bureau.

The girl’s father went to the hospital in search of the children where he came to know that the boy was with the bureau and he took over his custody after completing the formalities, according to the report.