Police in Pakistan's Punjab kill four people suspected of raping murdering 11 year-old girl

Lahore, Apr 1 (PTI) The police in Pakistan's Punjab province on Tuesday shot dead in an encounter four people who allegedly raped and killed an 11-year-old girl.
     The suspects who raped and killed the girl on March 24 in Bahawalpur district, some 400 kilometres from Lahore, were her relatives -- two of them her maternal uncles and the other two her cousins, a police source told PTI.
     The source said the four suspects arrested on March 30 confessed to their crime.
     "Since the suspects brutally raped and killed the minor girl, no leniency could have been shown to these beats," the source said, adding they were "shot dead by police in an encounter".
     A police statement, however, claimed the suspects were taken to a place for recovery of the weapon used to slit the throat of the victim.
     After recovery of the knife, the accomplices of the suspects opened fire at the police team while returning.
     "The fire was returned and in the crossfire, all four suspects were killed while their accomplices managed to flee," the statement said.
     Station House Officer (SHO) Rao Shahzad Babar expressed deep anguish over the brutal rape and murder.
     He said the police initially rounded up 15 suspects and sent their DNA samples for test.
     The suspects were identified through the test and arrested, he said.
     The suspects then confessed to committing the crime before the investigating officer, Babar said.
     He said the suspects in their confession statement admitted how they grabbed, raped and later killed her.
     Babar said the victim's mother was the complainant in the case and sought "swift justice" for her daughter.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)