SAHIWAL: An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by two brothers at Chak 19/SP, Pakpattan, on Tuesday. The girl’s family held a protest against Sadar police for not registering a gang-rape case against the suspects.

The father of the victim, a student of grade III, told Sadar police his youngest daughter regularly visited her friend’s home in the neighbouring street. On Tuesday, she went to the house of her friend, a daughter of a former assistant sub-inspector (ASI), where her friend’s two brothers raped her.

The girl fainted due to her ordeal. Her family got worried when she did not return home and found her in the friend’s house in deteriorating condition.

They shifted the girl to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital where doctors provided her medical aid. Local leaders of the PML-N also gathered at the hospital to express solidarity with the victim’s father.

Sadar police were unwilling to register the gang-rape case against the suspects. At this, the victim’s family held a protest demonstration in the village. The girl’s father told the media that the police were pressurising him to refrain from registering the gang-rape case.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Shahida Noureen told Dawn it’s not a gang-rape incident as the suspect’s younger brother had probably only facilitated him in committing the crime. The police had the arrested main suspect, she added.

District Police Officer Kamra Yousuf reached the village and he was holding meetings with the families of the victim and the suspects when this report was filed.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2017