HARIPUR: Police on Tuesday said that the body of the missing minor girl, 5-year-old Ayat Noor, was recovered from a well near University Link Road after 14 days on the pointation of the fourth suspect. "We will continue further investigation into this complex and sensitive case to trace and bring every culprit to justice," District Police Officer (DPO) Shafiullah Gandapur told reporters here. SP Security Hazara Samina Zafar, DSPs, officers from the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), IT wing, and SHOs of different police stations also attended the press conference.
The DPO said that Ayat Noor, daughter of a daily wager at a confectionery shop in Khalabat Township, went missing outside her home in Mohalla Pathan Colony at around 6 pm on August 10. Police started an initial inquiry under section 156/3 of the CrPC and registered an FIR on August 12 formally under section 364-A after obtaining records of CCTV footage, call data records (CDRs), and geo-fencing of the area.
During the preliminary investigation and combing operation, the police arrested three suspects, he said, adding that one of them identified as Usman, a resident of Model Town, confessed to his crime and recorded his statement in the court of the Duty Magistrate wherein he confessed that he, along with his other accomplices Talha, Qasim, and two unknown persons, abducted the minor girl and took her to the Phosphate Factory's ground near Model Town where he and Talha sexually assaulted her.
However, according to the DPO, none of the three arrested accused (Usman, Qasim, and Talha) confessed about where they left the victim last after committing the crime. The DPO said that the investigation and search for the missing girl continued till Monday evening when the police managed to obtain the CCTV footage record of another house, tracing another accused, namely Hasan Khan. On his pointation, the body of the girl was spotted in an unused well of a warehouse near one of the link roads of Haripur University. The body was retrieved by the rescue officials of Rescue 1122 and shifted to the Trauma Centre.