MUZAFFARGARH - A girl, Muzammil Bibi, 20, daughter of Allah Ditta, a farmer, was found hanging from a tree in Nawan Kot, Layyah, some 160 kilometres from Multan, on Friday.
According to Layyah DPO Ghazi Salahuddin, the incident took place in the Nawan Kot area of tehsil Chobara of Layyah district where the area people found the body hanging with a rope on a tree. On receiving information, police reached the spot and took down the body of 20-year-old girl kidnapped two days ago, according to her parents.
Taking notice of the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has sought a report from DPO Layyah and ordered the police to take strict action against those responsible for it.  The 20-year-old girl was kidnapped on June 18 and found murdered today. According to her postmortem report, she was raped before she was strangled. The victim’s father had informed the police that his daughter had been kidnapped, but the police registered a case after 24 hours and took no action. The residents of the area found the body hanging from a tree just a few yards away from a security checkpost.
Reuters adds: Muzammil Bibi, 20, was attacked by three men in a field in the impoverished Layyah area of densely populated Punjab province. She had been kidnapped, gang-raped, killed and hanged from a tree, with a chilling resemblance to a double rape and murder that caused outrage in India last month.
“This is the first time in my 22 years of service in the police that I have seen such a case when a girl was raped in this way and found hanging from a tree,” senior officer Sadaqat Ali Chohan told Reuters.
“We have heard of such cases in India but never in Pakistan. The girl’s clothes were torn. We took her down and moved her to hospital. Her body had signs of resistance. We have arrested three individuals who have confessed to the crime.” According to police, she resisted the rape and attackers strangled her.
Police said her parents and residents spent all night looking for her and found her body hanging the next morning.
Two teenage cousins were found hanging from a tree after being raped in India in May, which triggered a nationwide debate on violence against women.