PESHAWAR: The Additional District and Sessions Judge of Model Court, Tufail Ahmed, on Thursday sentenced Yasirullah, the convict in rape and murder of 9-year-old, to 42 years in prison.
A fine of Rs500,000 was also imposed on the convict.
According to details, on December 28, 2018, Shah Syed son of Gul Rehan, resident of Nawan Kalay, Nowshera Kalan told the police that his nine-year-old daughter Manahel, who was a student of class III, left home for religious seminary in the afternoon but she did not return.
He said that they searched her all the night but in the morning, they found her tortured body in Bajaur cemetery. The police said that she was also brutally tortured before being killed. According to the post-mortem report, the girl was also sexually abused by the convict. The police said that the convict has confessed to sexually assaulting and killing innocent Manahel.
The case was first heard in the anti-terrorism court in Mardan and later it was transferred to Nowshera’s Additional District and Sessions Judge. The case was pending in the court for hearing for three years.
The judge, while delivering the verdict, sentenced the accused Yasirullah to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs300,000 while in 5053 CPA [child protection act], he was sentenced to seven more years with a fine of Rs1 million.
The Manahel rape and murder case was raised not only in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly but also in the Senate and National Assembly and all religious and political parties staged several protests demanding justice for the family and action against child abuse.
The protesters had demanded death penalty in sexual abuse cases to prevent such incidents. The rape and murder of innocent Zainab was also strongly protested after which the Punjab assembly passed a law to stop children sexual abuse.