The Station House Officer (SHO) Digri in Mirpurkhas district earlier today has been suspended and arrested on charges of raping a 20-year-old mentally challenged girl from Lahore.
First Incident Report (FIR) No. 42 was registered against Digri SHO Mohammad Aslam Jamali under section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the victim’s complaint.
The police officer has been taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation, according to Mirpurkhas Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Usman Ghani Siddiqui.
Eyewitnesses told the media that the girl had arrived in Digri town from Lahore’s Garhi Shahu area a few months earlier to visit her relatives, and had gone to SHO Jamali on Friday night to register a complaint regarding harassment by locals in the area.
SSP Ghani said that when he arrived at Digri police station on Saturday morning, the girl alleged that SHO Jamali had raped her the night before in his official quarters near the police station and an FIR was subsequently lodged.
“She has been sent for a medical check-up in Mirpurkhas under police protection,” added Ghani.
“I myself will supervise the case, which is in my district, so that the accused cannot escape.”
The SSP has also notified his superiors, including Inspector General Police (IG) Sindh A D Khawaja, and has appointed SP Satellite Town Jan Mohammad Mugheri as the inquiry officer to complete a thorough probe into the matter within three days.
Ghani said police is also investigating how the girl reached Digri.
Women’s rights activists Haseen Musarrat Shah of Women Action Forum and Zahida Detho strongly condemned the incident and demanded an honest probe into the matter.
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