HANGU/BUNER: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw two incidents on Sunday in which minor girls were victims of sexual assault. One of the incidents took place in Hangu while the other in Buner.

The victim in Hangu, an eight-year-old girl, was shot dead after the assault. The body was found in a deserted area of Thall Tehsil’s Sarokhel village, according to the Dawaba police station’s SHO.

A spokesperson for Shaheed Fareed Khan district hospital informed the media that an initial postmortem report showed the girl died after suffering bullet injuries and strangulation.

The doctor said DNA samples had been sent to a laboratory for forensic examination.

The girl’s grandfather told reporters at the hospital that she had gone missing on Saturday night.

“We searched for her throughout the night, but failed to find her,” he said. However, he added, early on Sunday morning “we were informed that her body has been found”.

The grandfather said his family had no enmity with anyone. He called upon the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and the inspector general of police to arrest the culprit and award him an exemplary punishment.

The girl’s relatives and villagers held a demonstration and blocked the main road in Hangu’s Dawaba bazaar.

The District Police Officer assured the protesters that the culprits would be arrested as soon as possible. The villagers called off their protest after the assurance, but left with a warning that if the culprits were not arrested, their protest would spread to other areas.

The DPO formed a nine-member investigation team to probe the incident.

In Buner, a five-year girl was allegedly raped by a relative in Jabogay Dokada. Police said they had arrested a suspect and registered a case against him.

The girl said in her statement to police that she was playing outside her home when a man picked her up and “took me to a deserted place”.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2020