Police have taken six suspects into custody for questioning in connection with the Farishta kidnapping and murder case, according to a media report.
According to the report, police have so far interrogated 50 suspects during the probe.
After the geofencing of the area, police also obtained data of 793,884 different mobile phone numbers that were active in the vicinity of the crime scenes around the time of the murder. So far, 1,587 numbers have been shortlisted as “suspicious”, the report said, adding that the police are conducting analysis of remaining data.
Further evidence collected from the crime scene has been secured and will be sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency for analysis.
Two special investigation teams (SIT) have been constituted by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Islamabad, Amir Zulfiqar, in order to investigate the matter.
The case of 10-year-old Farishta’s murder came to light last week after her family members protested against the police in Islamabad, and activists and politicians highlighted it on social media. According to Farishta’s father Ghulam Nabi, he had lodged a missing person’s report a day after his daughter disappeared on May 15 as he feared that she had been abducted.
He alleged that instead of filing a first information report (FIR) and trying to recover Farishta, the station house officer told them she must have run away with someone. He also accused the Shahzad Town police station’s personnel of making him clean the station.
Meanwhile, a four-day-old body recovered on Monday evening (May 20) was identified as that of Farishta by her father, who recognised her by her clothes. Police said samples taken from the body and the site where Farishta was found are being tested to ascertain whether she was subjected to gang rape and torture, as alleged by the family.
A case has also been registered against the police officials of Shahzad Town police station for negligence.
