GILGIT: The Gilgit Baltistan (GB) home department has formed a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the murder of the 14-year-old, seventh-grade student Didar Hussain in Tashnalut village of Ishkoman.
The JIT which has been constituted on the request of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ghizer Sultan Faisal, would be headed by SSP Ishaque Hussain and include Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Hanan, Inspector Rehmat Baig, Inspector Sadat Ali and two other officials belonging to intelligence agencies.
The police have incorporated sections 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the first information report (FIR) filed against the perpetrators. The case was previously registered under clauses 302, 377 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
A source in police department informed that the arrested perpetrators would soon be shifted to the investigation wing of Gilgit police for proper investigation.
Meanwhile, father of deceased Didar Hussain, Ajayib Khan has demanded the authorities to arrest the real culprits and give them exemplary punishment.
In an application to the station house officer (SHO) of Immit police station, Ajayib requested to also nominate Farooq, son of Chalu Khan, and Abdul Manan, son of Sabeel, from Tashnalut village in the FIR.
Police have already arrested eight suspects out of whom four including Aziz son of Chalo Khan, Muhammad Umer son of Chalo Khan, Noor Azam son of Abdul Hanan and Noor Muhammad son of Abdul Manan have confessed to the crime. The deceased’s mobile and charger were also recovered from one of these culprits.
According to the investigation officer, the culprits have told the police that they took Deedar to a deep gorge near the river, overpowered him, raped him and strangulated him with a piece of cloth when the victim threatened to report the case to the police.
When Deedar Hussain fell unconscious, the culprits took him to the river and threw him in but when the semi-conscious victim started floating in the water, the culprits took him out, fixed heavy stones with lower parts of his body after unzipping his pants, zipped up his pants again and wrapped his own belt around the stones fasted with his body and drowned him again before fleeing the scene.
The other arrested persons include Gohar Aman, Noor Azam, Sher Islam and Abdul Latif.
The victim’s family has also expressed fear for facing consequences for pursuing the murder case of their beloved son. It has been reported that families of the main accused have previously murdered at least six other people.
The body of Didar Hussain, who had been missing for three days, was recovered on February 7 from a ravine. An autopsy report confirmed that the 14-year old student was kidnapped, raped, strangled and drowned in the Qurumbar river.
His family and other villagers had staged a protest in front of Immit police station in Ishkoman by placing the deceased’s body in front of the police station and demanding the arrest of the culprits.
On the assurance of the district administration, Didar was buried on the evening of Thursday, February 7, in his native village Tashnaut.