ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The opposition members, belonging to the Democratic Alliance and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, on Friday jointly staged a walkout from the Senate to protest against the "brutal murder" of two minor girls in Karachi.

Parliamentary leader of the People's Party Parliamentarians Mian Raza Rabbani raised the issue while speaking on a point of order and asked the interior minister to give a statement on this unfortunate incident.

Mr Rabbani said the autopsy report, published in the press, narrated a horrible story of how two minor girls, Hajira and Sassi, whose mutilated bodies were recovered from a compound adjacent to Gadap police station in Karachi, were murdered.

He said according to the autopsy report, several body parts of the two girls were missing. According to the report, he said, the bodies of the two girls were mutilated as dogs and cats had nibbled and gnawed at them.

The PPP leader questioned the silence of the federal and Sindh governments on the gruesome incident. He said this incident was a serious violation of the rights of women as well as human rights.

Mr Rabbani said the incident had happened because in his opinion the country had been converted into a police state. Mr Rabbani said the government had given a free hand to the police as Pakistan was taking part in the war against terrorism.

He regretted that the control of the police had been transferred to the federal government from the provincial governments under Schedule 6 of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) due to which the law and order situation was worsening in the country.

He also mentioned a report of the US State Department alleging that custodian killings had been on the increase in Pakistan. He said the matter should not be taken lightly.

After Mr Rabbani's speech, the members of the Democratic Alliance and the MMA staged a token walkout. Later, the leader of the house Wasim Sajjad succeeded persuading the opposition members to come back to the Senate and assured them that either the interior minister or he himself would give a statement on the issue during the evening session.

However, the interior minister, the leader of the house as well as Mr Rabbani were not present in the upper house when the chairman adjourned the proceedings in the evening for Sunday morning.