FIR registered against policemen for negligence in Farishta’s case

ISLAMABAD: A case has been registered against the station house officer (SHO) Shahzad Town and other policemen for negligence in the case of 10-year-old Farishta who was allegedly raped and murdered.

The First Information Report (FIR) registered by Farishta's father Ghulam Nabi states the family visited the police station for the registration of an FIR and to find the missing girl. However, the SHO instead of looking for the girl, alleged, she had run away with someone. Instead of registering the FIR, police officials had the police station cleaned, the FIR said.

The FIR calls for action to be taken against the SHO and other officials involved for criminal negligence

Meanwhile, police arrested a close relative of Farishta but did not provide further details. Police did state that the circle of the investigation had been widened.

Farishta’s body was discovered from a forest two days ago and later shifted to the Poly Clinic for post-mortem. Her family, which belongs to Mohmand Agency, said they had tried to file a missing person report to police on May 15 after she had left her home in the evening.

The family, however, claimed it took police till May 19 to register a first information report (FIR) and, even then, a proper search was not initiated. The minor girl's body was later discovered by locals who subsequently informed the police.

To protest against the police's negligence in the case, the victim's family protested alongside her body at Taramari Chowk.

On Tuesday, three suspects were arrested for being involved in the alleged rape and murder of the minor girl, police said, adding that the arrested suspects hailed from Afghanistan.

Waqaruddin Syed, the deputy inspector-general (DIG) of operations, suspended the SHO and directed Umar Khan, the superintendent of police (SP) for SP Rawal, to present a report in this regard on an immediate basis.

The case bears a striking similarity to the last year's rape-and-murder case of seven-year-old Zainab, who was kidnapped from near her aunt’s house in Kasur on January 4 and was found dead in a garbage heap five days later.