Girl saved from being killed for 'honour'

Acting on the request of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the Punjab police have saved a girl from being killed in the name of 'honour' in Nankana district and arrested a suspect.

An official said on Thursday that the HRCP had sent a letter to the Human Rights Cell of the Punjab police, requesting the IGP to immediately recover missing girl Ayesha who is likely to be killed in the name of "honour".

Acting on the information, the IGP constituted a police team headed by Human Rights Cell Additional IG Saif-ul-Murtaza for the safe recovery of the girl. Meanwhile, the AIG informed the DPO Nankana about the case who safely recovered Ayesha after a raid, the official said.

He added that a few days ago, a suspect identified as Ali Raza had killed his sister Samina, who was aunt of Ayesha, in the name of honour and subsequently he wanted to kill Ayesha as well. Samina was killed in Peepal Wala area of Magtan village of Nankana district, he mentioned.

He said that after arresting the suspected killer, the police personnel produced the girl before a magistrate where she recorded her statement and was moved to a shelter home on her request. On the other hand, he said the police were taking further legal action against Ali Raza after recovering murder weapon.

Meanwhile, Punjab IG Shoaib Dastgir in a statement directed all the RPOs and DPOs across Punjab to take adequate steps under their supervision in order to stop incidents of child and woman sexual abuse besides other heinous crimes and the progress reports of such cases should be furnished to the Central Police Office (CPO) on weekly basis.