KASUR: Investigators have claimed that rape and killing of three minor children at Chunian were apparently committed by a single person as suggested by the result of the samples taken from the body of one of the victims, Faizan.
This was disclosed by District Police Officer Zahid Nawaz Marwat on Tuesday to the media at Chunian.
The investigators, however, dispelled the impression that there was a racket behind the heinous crime, he added Police had recovered the body of Faizan, along with remains of two other minors, from sand dunes near Chunian bypass on Sept 17 while they were looking for four minor boys, all residents of Chunian, who had gone missing during the last three months. There is no clue to the fourth missing minor yet.
None of 200 suspects’ DNA matched with culprit’s sample
As per the postmortem examination reports, all the victims were sexually assaulted before being killed.
Violent protests had erupted at Chunian after the bodies of the three victims were discovered. The enraged protesters had damaged a police station, DSP’s office, tehsil headquarters hospital and a petrol pump belonging to a local MPA.
The DPO, who is also head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing into the incident, also told the media that the investigators had recovered clothes of the fourth missing minor, Imran, 11.
On Monday, DNA profiling of two bodies recovered from the sand dunes had matched with the families of two missing minors –Ali Hussnain and Salman.
Investigators in Chunian case were relying on DNA profiling and were collecting samples of the suspects through geofencing. Police had so far detained 20 suspects from Chunian, while the samples of over 950 others had also been collected for DNA tests.
A van of the Punjab Forensic Sciences Agency (PFSA) had been stationed at Chunian where the staff conducted the DNA tests.
The PFSA experts had declared results of DNA tests of over 200 suspects and none of these matched with the sample of the culprit collected from the body of Faizan.
In Zainab rape-cum-murder case in 2018, the investigators had identified the culprit, Imran, through DNA profiling of more than 1,200 suspects.
Imran was later hanged after a record eight-month-long trial for rape and murder of eight minor girls.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) MS Saira Umar said in handout issued by the DC office that child protection committees were being constituted at the union council level in Kasur district.
She was given a briefing at the DC Office on progress in the Chunian case.
The chairperson said the protection of children was the joint responsibility of the parents and the society, the handout said.
(Daily Dawn)
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