SSP Jamshoro Zafar Changha, while speaking to The Express Tribune, said that police have arrested two prime suspects, Nodo Khoso and Rehman Khoso. Police teams are conducting raids in different cities to arrest the other 11 suspects.
The body of a woman who was abducted ten days ago from Jamshoro, near Hyderabad, was found in a mountainous area. She was allegedly subjected to sexual assault and torture for several days before being murdered.
Twenty-seven-year-old X used to sell clothes door-to-door in neighbourhoods.
She lived with her husband, Babar, and extended family in jhuggies near Superhighway. They belonged to the Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and were in the business of selling clothes door-to-door.
On February 1, X left home as usual with her mother to sell clothes but did not return. Her father and husband searched for her but could not find her. X’s husband told police that she and her mother were in Khoso Goth, where the victim went into a house to show clothes but did not come back. Victim’s mother asked the residents of the house, but they did not provide a satisfactory response, after which she returned home.
It was reported that the victim’s family identified the suspects to police, and some members of the Khoso tribe were taken into custody. However, due to the intervention of certain political figures and local landlords in Jamshoro, the detained individuals were released.
The SSP said victim’s family approached police on February 3, expressing suspicion about certain individuals in the abduction. Although the suspects were briefly detained, no FIR was registered and the Jamshoro SHO released them, leading to his suspension and an inquiry by the SSP Hyd.
On February 9, police informed the family that a body had been recovered. Her hands and feet were tied, and her head and face were crushed with stones to conceal her identity. Police registered a case only after the body was found, by which time five nominated and eight unidentified suspects had fled. The family alleged that X was gang-raped and named five suspects from the Khoso community, along with eight unidentified individuals.
Senior officials ordered a transparent investigation.
*The victim’s name has been withheld to protect their identity