Punjab Police have failed to arrest the key suspect in the motorway rape case even after the passage of two weeks.
According to police high-ups, the suspect, Abid Malhi, has yet to be traced despite multiple raids conducted by police teams on his alleged hideouts.
“Our multiple teams are working on various leads and the suspect will be apprehended soon,” IGP Inam Ghani was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
The newspaper however reported that the reason police have failed to detain the suspect is the use of 'outdated technology'. The report quoted a police officer as saying that the police teams 'searched for the suspects in fields of small districts instead of tracing them through the latest technologies'.
The police are using '2G mobile phone call locator' to trace Abid Malhi while the suspect might have been using a 4G smartphone to communicate, it added. "The police had been using this outdated gadget for the last many years ignoring the latest modern equipment and 4G smartphone communications to trace the wanted criminals," the newspaper added.
Lahore Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh confirmed that the police were using the outdated system.
Last week, police detained the wife of the prime suspect in the motorway rape case to investigate the whereabouts of Abdi Malhi, who continues to evade arrest in the case.
In an initial statement recorded with police, the wife — who was arrested from the house of the suspect’s parents in Manga Mandi, Lahore — said that she did not know where her husband was.
DSP Hussnain Haider said that law enforcement officials were interrogating every person taken into custody so far but are yet to trace Abid’s location. On Thursday, a police team conducted a raid in Sheikhupura to arrest Abid, but it proved an exercise in futility.
Abid, who was leading a gang of four, was also wanted to police in at least 10 other criminal cases registered at various police stations of Punjab.
The other suspect in the case, Shafqat has already been detained by the police from his house in Okara. He has been sent to 14-day judicial remand by an anti-terrorism court earlier this week. According to reports, Shafqat confessed to the crime before his DNA matched the samples collected from the crime scene.
Police said the woman, a resident of Gujranwala, was returning to the city from Lahore on Tuesday night when her car ran out of petrol.
Geo News reported that the woman called her husband, who advised her to call Motorway Police for help until he got there. However, the Motorway Police operator excused from helping the woman, saying the emergency beat had not been assigned to anyone.
As she was left to her own devices on the deserted road, two armed men approached the vehicle and smashed its windows. They then took the woman and her children out of the car and took them into a nearby field after cutting the fence along the road to rape her. The report said the woman was also deprived of Rs100,000, jewelry, and ATM cards.
According to police high-ups, the suspect, Abid Malhi, has yet to be traced despite multiple raids conducted by police teams on his alleged hideouts.
“Our multiple teams are working on various leads and the suspect will be apprehended soon,” IGP Inam Ghani was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
The newspaper however reported that the reason police have failed to detain the suspect is the use of 'outdated technology'. The report quoted a police officer as saying that the police teams 'searched for the suspects in fields of small districts instead of tracing them through the latest technologies'.
The police are using '2G mobile phone call locator' to trace Abid Malhi while the suspect might have been using a 4G smartphone to communicate, it added. "The police had been using this outdated gadget for the last many years ignoring the latest modern equipment and 4G smartphone communications to trace the wanted criminals," the newspaper added.
Lahore Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh confirmed that the police were using the outdated system.
Suspect's wife detained
Last week, police detained the wife of the prime suspect in the motorway rape case to investigate the whereabouts of Abdi Malhi, who continues to evade arrest in the case.
In an initial statement recorded with police, the wife — who was arrested from the house of the suspect’s parents in Manga Mandi, Lahore — said that she did not know where her husband was.
DSP Hussnain Haider said that law enforcement officials were interrogating every person taken into custody so far but are yet to trace Abid’s location. On Thursday, a police team conducted a raid in Sheikhupura to arrest Abid, but it proved an exercise in futility.
Abid, who was leading a gang of four, was also wanted to police in at least 10 other criminal cases registered at various police stations of Punjab.
The other suspect in the case, Shafqat has already been detained by the police from his house in Okara. He has been sent to 14-day judicial remand by an anti-terrorism court earlier this week. According to reports, Shafqat confessed to the crime before his DNA matched the samples collected from the crime scene.
Rape on motorway:
A woman was allegedly raped by two men in front of her children after her car ran out of gas near Gujjarpura, Lahore, on Sept 18.
Police said the woman, a resident of Gujranwala, was returning to the city from Lahore on Tuesday night when her car ran out of petrol.
Geo News reported that the woman called her husband, who advised her to call Motorway Police for help until he got there. However, the Motorway Police operator excused from helping the woman, saying the emergency beat had not been assigned to anyone.
As she was left to her own devices on the deserted road, two armed men approached the vehicle and smashed its windows. They then took the woman and her children out of the car and took them into a nearby field after cutting the fence along the road to rape her. The report said the woman was also deprived of Rs100,000, jewelry, and ATM cards.