March 31st, 2021
By Zeenat Shehzadi
FAISALABAD
Iqra, recounts the day her life changed forever. Her husband and the step father of her daughter, Shehzad Masih, had taken the little girl outside on the pretext of a walk.
Instead, Masih drove the little girl to a deserted area in his rickshaw and brutally raped her before he strangled her to death.
The 24-year-old mother of two, married Shehzad around two months ago after divorcing Waqas Masih the father of the children. Waqas a drug addict, would squander all the money Iqra made for household expenses by toiling at a brick kiln.
“Before my daughter was murdered, Shehzad had tortured my two-year-old son Prem before locking him in a freezer,” she said. He beat the toddler into unconsciousness and then stuffed him into a nearby office freezer. However, the baby survived – Gaining consciousness in the darkness, Prem started wailing which attracted the attention of nearby children who rescued the child.
Playing the innocent
Even after the gruesome murder, Shehzad carried on pretending that he was unaware that his stepdaughter was missing and even helped the others in looking for her, say neighbours.
In fact, it was Shehzad, who was the one to suggest looking for the child behind the very freezer where he had earlier trapped his stepson.
The freezer was where the girl’s body was finally discovered. Upon reaching the spot, police collected evidence and arrested Shehzad within 24 hours. The accused confessed to assaulting and killing the minor girl and is now in police remand.
Statistics on sexual crime and violence suggest, the accused in most cases is a familiar of the victim especially if it is a child.