Zainab case: JIT head submits progress report in Supreme Court

F.P. Report

LAHORE: The head of the joint investigation team (JIT) submitted the progress report regarding the rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab in the Supreme Court on Sunday (today).

Earlier on January 4, Seven years old Zainab was kidnapped in Kasur and after five days later her body was discovered from a garbage pile. The post-mortem report revealed that Zainab had been raped and murdered.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar headed the two member special bench of the supreme court and resumed hearing its suo motu notice of the brutal murder at its Lahore Registry on Sunday.

At the last hearing on Tuesday, the two-member bench, comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, had summoned the JIT probing the incident as well as the head of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency.

As the hearing went under way, JIT head DIG Muhammad Idrees informed the court that Zainab’s was the eighth incident of child abuse in Kasur since June 2015.

Expressing displeasure, the chief justice remarked that the SHOs of the two police stations, in whose jurisdictions the incidents occurred for over two years, were not removed despite so many incidents.

The JIT head informed the bench further that on January 4, Zainab was going to her Khala’s [maternal aunt] house which was 300 metres away.

Dr Ashraf of the forensic agency said it is unclear from the CCTV footage if the girl in the video is indeed Zainab.

The hearing was then shifted inside a private room on the request of the forensic agency’s head.

The AIG informed the court that eight similar cases emerged in Kasur since the last year and a half.

During the hearing, the chief justice also remarked that the accused in the Zainab case is a serial killer.

Chief Justice Nisar had taken a suo motu notice of the case on January 10.