Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Friday took suo moto notice of the rape and torture of a six-year-old girl in Karachi, Radio Pakistan reported.

The CJP directed the Sindh inspector general of police, AD Khawaja, to submit a report on the incident within 48 hours.

Unidentified suspects raped the girl and later tried to kill her, police and hospital officials said, but the child ─ who was found in a drain in the Ibrahim Hyderi police limits Thursday evening ─ survived.

They added that the girl was found injured on the Malir riverbed near Korangi Crossing. Her throat and a hand bore stab wounds.

The girl was initially taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, which referred her to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where her medical examination was carried out by a lady doctor, said senior medico-legal officer (MLO) Dr Mubarak Pathan.

Quoting the report, the MLO said she was raped and later the suspect(s) tried to kill her as her throat was slit, added the doctor.

She was referred to the trauma centre, where she was being operated upon.

Ibrahim Hyderi police officer Mohammad Juman told Dawn that when the girl came to, she identified herself and also told the name of her father to the police.

She told the police that she studies in a school in Korangi.

The officer said that it appeared that she was kidnapped and later subjected to criminal assault before being thrown into the drain.