Prime Minister Imran Khan takes direct action against two senior police officials for negligence in the case pertaining to the horrifying rape and murder of 10-year-old girl, Farishta, in Islamabad, according to the statement issued from PM office on Wednesday.
“It is a failure of a system that police staff forced the children of the affected family to clean their offices. Departmental proceedings are initiated against the perpetrators and finalized expeditiously,” the statement said.
“Police claims that SOPs have been created for crimes against children after Kasur incident. The said SOPs were found to be inoperative/deficient in this case,” it observed, ordering the inspector general (IG) and deputy inspector general (DIG) to furnish an explanation.
The statement, a copy of which was sent to the interior secretary, reads, “IG and DIG to explain as to why no system was in place to highlight child-related crimes and also explain the overall failure of the system to effect speedy justice to the bereaved family”.
“The prime minister has further directed that daily updates on progress on the above directives and investigations be submitted for the information of the prime minister,” it further added.
10-year-old Farishta belonged to a family from Monmand district now settled in Islamabad’s Shehzad Town, had gone missing from the capital city on May 15. Her body was discovered from the forest two days ago and later shifted to the Poly Clinic for post-mortem.
An FIR had been lodged against the station house officer (SHO) Shahzad Town and other policemen for negligence in the case.
The FIR registered by Farishta’s father, Ghulam Nabi, states that the family visited the police station for the registration of a missing complaint. However, the SHO instead of looking for the girl alleged that she had run away with someone. Instead of registering the FIR, police officials had the police station cleaned, the FIR states.
The girl was reported to be raped before being murdered in an incident, which has sparked protest in Islamabad and triggered outrage on the social media.
According to the latest development police have arrested a close relative of Farishta but did not provide further details. As being reported the authorities have broadened the scope of the investigation.
