Rape victim’s father claims credit of arresting ‘serial killer’

The father of eight-year-old Zainab who was murdered after rape in Pakistan has claimed that actually he and his relatives had nabbed the suspected serial killer and handed him over to police.

Muhammad Amin made the claim at a press conference on Thursday in Road Kot locality, flanked by a lawyer, Aftab Ahmed Bajwa.

To substantiate his claim, Mr Amin referred to the picture showing the suspect sitting on a cot, claiming it was taken at the house of his (Amin’s) brother after “we seized him (Imran) and handed him over to police”.

“We had been insisting that Imran is the culprit since Jan 5, the day Zainab went missing, but police ignored us,” Mr Amin told journalists.

He said before the press conference of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore, law minister Rana Sanaullah had asked him (Amin) not to demand anything else except justice.

Mr Amin said he and his relatives got Imran picked twice but police released him on both occasions.

“Later, we had to ask Punjab police inspector general (IG) and the Joint Investigation Team head for the arrest of the suspect and then we nabbed him and handed him over to police,” the victim’s father claimed.

He also said the CCTV footage that showed the culprit was also obtained by Zainab’s relatives.

Lawyer Aftab Bajwa deplored that Rs10 million reward announced by the chief minister for the arrest of the culprit was being given to the JIT members, whereas it was actually the bereaved family who got the suspect arrested, reports the Dawn.