Police release 10 relatives of Abid Malhi after prime suspect held: sources

LAHORE: Police on Wednesday released 10 relatives of the prime suspect in motorway gang rape case, Abid Malhi, after the latter was arrested days back, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources.

According to sources privy to the matter, the police released the mother, sister, brother, brother-in-law, and cousin of the suspect. They were arrested by police from different places to lay a trap around the main accused for his arrest.

Police had on Monday announced to have arrested Abid Malhi from Faisalabad, after 33 days of manhunt.

Sources told ARY News that the police conduct a raid at Tandlianwala Tehsil of Faisalabad to arrest the key suspect in the motorway rape case but Malhi managed to escape from the scene moments before the police party reached there.

Later, acting on the information about the presence of Malhi at his relative’s house in Manga Mandi, the police conducted a raid at the house and apprehend the prime suspect in the motorway rape case.

Motorway rape case

On September 9, the woman along with her children was waiting for help on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway after her car ran out of fuel when she was forcefully brought out of the car at gunpoint and gang-raped in Gujjarpura area on the outskirts of the provincial.

The police have already arrested another prime suspect named Shafqat, accused in a motorway gang-rape case in Lahore on September 14.

An anti-terrorism court sent the co-suspect in the motorway gang-rape case, Shafqat, to judicial lockup for 14 days and directed the jail authorities to hold his identification parade under special arrangements.