A judicial magistrate on September 17 extended police remand of a suspected serial rapist paedophile by three days in cases pertaining to sexual abuse of minor girls.
Shabbir Ahmed, a fruit vendor, has been booked in seven cases lodged under charges of assaulting minor girls and child pornogrpahy. He was arrested on September 11 by the Defence police in Qayyumabad.
The investigating officer produced the suspect before Judicial Magistrate (South) Mir Sagar Khan on the completion of his physical remand and requested a nine-day extension in his remand for further interrogation.
He stated that during the initial interrogation, the suspect confessed to his crime. However, when asked to disclose details of other victim girls he had sexually abused, the suspect resorted to evasive tactics and repeatedly changed his statements, he added.
The IO said that seven cases had been lodged against the suspect, adding that his custody was required to record statements of victims under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), identify more victims, and check his criminal record.
After hearing the IO, the magistrate extended the remand of the suspect by three days. He issued a notice to the investigating officer on applications seeking to record 164 CrPC statements of four victims, including two sisters, and conduct his identification parade before the court.
The magistrate is expected to record the statement of the victims and conduct an identification parade today (Thursday). According to court staff and witnesses, victim girls present there slapped the suspect on the court premises.
The suspect was initially booked in four cases, involving the rape of four girls and one boy. Police later invoked Section 22 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, which deals with child pornography, after recovering his mobile phone and a USB drive containing more than one hundred explicit videos.
According to the prosecution, the suspect told investigators that he had come from Abbottabad to Karachi in 2011. In the year 2016, he moved to the Qayyumabad locality, and started luring children in 2019. He first opened a grocery shop, and later a juice cart. Police have claimed to have seized a mobile phone from his custody containing hundreds of videos filmed in his room that show him sexually abusing children.
Published in The News on September 18, 2025.
