PESHAWAR: The Abbottabad Bench of the Peshawar High Court has granted bail to three suspects arrested in connection with the murder of four-year-old Ayat Noor in Haripur.
The suspects — Usman, Qasim and Talha — were taken into custody during the investigation into the child’s killing.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to probe the case and examined the incident from different angles. However, investigators were unable to establish sufficient evidence connecting the three suspects with the murder, following which the court granted them bail.
Ayat Noor had gone missing from Pathan Colony in Haripur while she was out to play. Her family subsequently reported her disappearance, prompting police to register a kidnapping case.
After a search lasting around 15 days, the child’s body was recovered from a well inside a warehouse on University Road.
Investigators later used CCTV footage to identify five people allegedly linked to the child’s abduction. Three of the identified suspects were subsequently arrested.
Meanwhile, Ayat Noor’s parents have welcomed another baby girl just days after the tragic death of their daughter and have given the newborn the same name in her memory.
Political activist Irum Fatima Turk shared pictures of the newborn and her family on social media, saying Ayat Noor’s parents, Shafiq and his wife, had been blessed with another daughter.
“Ayat Noor is back,” Turk wrote in her post, revealing that the couple had named their newborn daughter Ayat Noor.
She prayed for the child’s well-being and expressed hope that she would grow up in a society where children are protected and treated with dignity.
“May this Ayat Noor grow up safe, and may justice be delivered for the Ayat Noor we lost,” she wrote.
