SAHIWAL, Sept 3: City police have arrested a man for raping and then killing a four-year-old girl he had abducted some four days back.

The victim had gone missing from the street where she used to play in Farid Ganj locality on the night before Eid (Chand Raat) at about 7:30pm.

Her father along with other family members, neighbours and friends looked for the child but in vain.

The father, who runs a small hotel in the locality and lives in a rented house, reported the matter to city police. The police questioned everybody they suspected or could provide them relevant information but in vain.

At last a boy of the locality told the victim's parents that he had last seen the girl with Nauman, the owner of the house rented by victim's family.

Finding Nauman's answers to some queries unsatisfactory, the police picked him up and broke him soon.

In his confessional statement, Nauman told the police that on August 30 he lured the child to Jhal Road area where he raped her and returned to his house, leaving the victim unconscious there amid bushes and trees.

After returning to his house, the accused joined the victim's family and other neighbourhood people who were looking for the missing child.

Fearing his crime might be exposed, he went for the extreme step and knifed the unconscious child to death. He then threw the body into Lower Bari Doab Canal (LBDC) and returned home.

The accused has been charged under sections 302, 364 and 201 of the PPC and put behind bars.

The police have handed over the body to the girl's parents after retrieving it from the canal.

Yellow cabs: As many as 1,241 of the total 5,000 applicants from across the Sahiwal division will get yellow cabs under the Yellow Cab Scheme through computerised balloting at the Jinnah Hall on Sept 7, says a handout issued here on Saturday.

District Coordination Officer Waqas Ali Mahmood says that computerised balloting is meant to ensure transparency.

There are reports that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will inaugurate computerised balloting.—Correspondent