Motorway rape incident: Rs2.5 million reward announced for arrest of each suspect

He assured that the culprits would soon be behind bars.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – As the culprits of gang-rape of a woman on motorway near Gujjarpura are still at large, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar announced Rs2.5 million reward for those who help law-enforcement agencies apprehend the culprits on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference along with Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat Ali, Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Inam Ghani in Lahore on Saturday, he said that the law-enforcement agencies have traced the culprits behind the gang-rape within 72 hours.

He assured that the culprits would soon be behind bars.

The chief minister went on to say that he had also contacted the victim and assured her of justice, adding that the police officials were also in contact with the victim and the accused will be given punishment as per law.

Speaking on the ocassion, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani said it was confirmed through scientific evidence last night that the primary suspect in the case is one Abid Ali, who is a resident of Fort Abbas in district Bahawalnagar.

He said that initially police only had the information that the DNA samples collected from the crime scene matched with the samples in government records of a minor suspect.

The IGP said that our teams worked hard to gain information and now the police has the entire record of both suspects in the case, adding that a special investigation team was constituted comprising of officers from the CTD, Special Branch, and an officer from the unit of violence against women.

“We are utilising all our resources and taking assistance from other intelligence agencies as well and the accused will soon be detained,” he assured.

Inam Ghani said that the law enforcement agencies were ready by afternoon to conduct raids at their houses and arrest them but but upon reaching the locations found that they were not there. "The police were then able to track down the suspects  residences to Qila Sattar Shah, District Sheikhupura," the IGP said.

The IGP said, "Police were able to locate Ali s house and also found his daughter there, adding that his nikahnama and other documents were also seized."

Earlier today, in a major breakthrough in motorway gang-rape case, police had identified both criminals involved in the horrific crime. The prime suspect was identified as Abid Ali Malhi after samples matched with his DNA from criminal database of 2013. The second suspect has been identified as Waqar ul Hasan Shah and both have been involved in various crimes across Punjab in previous years.

According to details, the DNA of suspect Abid Malhi – a resident of Fort Abbas – matched from the sample obtained from the dress of the victim. Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) is conducting raids for the arrest of the criminal. However, the rapists are still at large.

A picture of the central perpetrator of Wednesday night’s heinous crime, Abid Malhi of Fort Abbas, had also been released. Dunya News had obtained the criminal record of Abid Ali, who has been in the criminal database since 2013 for another rape case.

Previously, cries of shock and rage rung out across Pakistan over the rape of a woman by two ‘robbers’ in front of her children on motorway near Gujjarpura, leading social media users and television pundits to call for the suspects to be publicly hanged.

The woman was travelling from Lahore to Gujranwala on Tuesday night when her car developed a fault on the motorway. She got a call from a relative ... who asked her to call the police helpline for help while he also left from home to reach her. “When he reached the location, he found the woman terrified with her clothes stained with blood.”

Police officials were quoted as saying that two armed men who had found the woman alone on the road took her and her children to a nearby field and gang-raped her on gunpoint.