KARACHI, April 23: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday recorded the statement an investigation officer in a case pertaining to the kidnap, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl.

Investigation officer Mohammad Ashraf Sherwani submitted details of the investigation and informed the court that the accused had made calls for ransom on the cellular phone of the girl’s father. The call data helped police trace the accused.

According to the prosecution, Tanveer Ahmed had kidnapped Iqra from outside her house in Pakistan Bazaar police limits where she was playing on February 25, 2007. The accused, who is brother-in-law of the girl’s father, took her to his home and demanded a ransom amount of Rs500,000 from the victim’s father, Saleem. The accused later allegedly raped the girl. He then killed her and chopped her body into pieces. Police had traced the accused through the calls he had made on the complainant’s cellular phone and arrested him.

During the initial interrogation, the accused disclosed that he had buried different parts of the victim’s body in Saddar and Mochko areas. Police raided the locations and disinterred the parts.

Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of ATC-I, who is conducting the trial, adjourned the hearing till April 25 when the court would record the statement of the accused.

The court has so far examined around 14 prosecution witnesses, including judicial magistrate Irshad Hussain Quershi, who had recorded the confessional statement of the accused and taken account of Dr Fareeda, the medico-legal officer at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. The MLO, who had conducted her autopsy, testified before the magistrate that medical reports confirmed that the girl had been raped before being murdered.

The case (FIR 74/2007) was lodged on the complaint of the victim’s father at the Pakistan Bazaar police station under Sections 365-A, 302 and 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7(A), (E), (I) of the Anti-terrorism Act.

Ransom case