Man Gets Capital Punishment for Assaulting and Killing Girl
GHRTV Reporter
2/12/2021
Emma Barnhoorn
Pakistan and Human Rights Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
A Nowshera court in Peshawar, Pakistan has convicted a man who sexually assaulted and killed an 8-year-old girl. The man was awarded the death sentence and a fine of Rs310,000 (1563 Euro).
The district and sessions judge Shehnaz Hameed Khattak, while exercising the powers of a child protection court, granted the man life imprisonment. A co-accused was also fined Rs200,000.
The incident happened on the 18th of January, back in 2020, when the girl was killed in the jurisdiction of the Nowshera Kalan police station. A postmortem report confirmed that she was sexually assaulted as well. The incident triggered a public outcry at the time with civil society groups staging multiple demonstrations and the issue was also highlighted on social media.
The complainant of the case was the girl’s uncle, who had told the police that she had gone to a nearby seminary with her younger sister. Her sister came back home, but she never did. When family members went searching for her and eventually reached the crime scene, they spotted two men drowning the girl in a water tank, but they fled immediately upon being spotted. Help from her family came too late and they pulled her out of the tank, death.
The court sentenced the prime accused to death on three counts: intentional murder (section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC)), rape (section 376 PPC) and kidnapping of a child under 14-years-old (section 364-A PPC).[1] The accused recorded his statement saying that he had enticed the girl to the place of the crime by saying that he brought glitter for her (Dawn, 2021).
Notes:
For the full text of the Pakistan Penal Code, please follow this link: http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/1860/actXLVof1860.html.
Sources and further readings:
Dawn (2021, December 2) “Man gets capital punishment for assaulting, killing girl” https://www.dawn.com/news/1661418/man-gets-capital-punishment-for-assaulting-killing-girl.
