MARDAN  -  An anti-terrorism court in Mardan on Monday awarded life imprisonment to the teenager involved in sexually abusing and later killing a 4-year-old girl Asma in Gujjar Garhi area of the district.

Asma went missing on January 13 from Gujjar Garhi. However, her body was recovered from sugarcane fields a few days later in the same area. The police initially registered a case against unknown accused. However, Himaytullah Mayar, the then district nazim, claimed that the minor had been sexually abused but the police were trying to conceal the facts.

Mayar alleged that police were also trying to conceal post-mortem report. He also claimed that as per post-mortem report the girl had been raped before been strangled to death. The district government had also called an all parties’ conference on the matter to pressurise the police for including rape and terror clauses in the first information report (FIR).

Later, the police also confirmed that the girl had been raped before she was killed. The rape and terror clauses were included in the FIR. The police arrested more than 200 people from the surrounding areas. Blood samples of some of the suspects were taken and sent to forensic laboratory in Lahore for matching.

DNA of one of the accused identified as Muhammad Nabi, 15, a relative of the minor, matched with the sample collected from the body of Asma. Nabi was promptly arrested and presented before a local court on 11th February. The accused confessed to his crime before the court.

Later, the case proceedings started in the anti-terrorism court (ATC), Mardan, which continued for more than four months. On Monday, the ATC Judge Younas Khan awarded life impressments to the accused with Rs1 million fine.

However, talking to media, Syed Inayat Shah Advocate, counsel for the minor girl’s family, said that the accused was a teenager due to which the court did not award death sentence to him. He added that he was satisfied with the court decision.

Riaz Khan