Lahore: Three persons have been arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old girl whose body was found hanging from a tree in Pakistan's Punjab province.
"We have arrested three suspects - Saqib, Irfan and Zaman in the case. One of them, Saqib had confessed to his crime during interrogation," a police official told PTI today.
Saqib, a labourer, told police that he had persuaded the girl to elope with him.
"Since I had no place to live, I killed her after spending a night with her. I hanged her from a tree to give an impression that she had committed a suicide," Saqib said.
DPO (Layyah) Ghazi Salahuddin said swabs of the three accused had been sent for medical examination.
The victim, a resident of Chah Lucmanwala Nawan Kot (Layyah), some 350 kilometres from Lahore, had gone to the local fruit market on Thursday, but did not return.
Police had launched a search after registering a report, but could not locate the girl.
Yesterday some passers-by spotted the body of the girl hanging from a tree informed the police.
The incident has sent a shockwave among the residents who took?the girl's body to the district police officer's (DPO) office and staged a protest against the gruesome murder.
It was a chilling resemblance to a double rape and murder in Uttra Pradesh last month that sparked a global outrage. Two cousins were raped and their bodies were found hanging from a mango tree on May 28.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, June 21, 2014, 18:38
