A woman has confessed to strangling her minor stepdaughter to death earlier this month in Chakesar tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Shangla district, police said on Wednesday.

Chakesar police had arrested the woman — the main accused — over murder charges and she later confessed to killing her daughter before a local court, District Police Officer (DPO) Shangla Rahatullah Khan said.

The DPO said the 11-year-old girl was killed and buried secretly by her stepmother and real father at their ancestral graveyard in Lensook area of Chakesar tehsil. But the child's sudden death raised police suspicion, “following which I directed the station house officer Chakesar to launch an inquiry [of the case] under the supervision of SP Investigation Shangla Khalid Khan".

The inquiry began a week ago after exhumation of the girl's body and a medical report later revealed signs of physical torture on the victim, he added.

According to the DPO, the girl's father in his statement recorded before the court revealed that his daughter had been killed by his second wife over a domestic dispute. However, the man kept silent about the crime and helped his wife bury the girl.

The accused woman told both police and the court that she had killed her stepdaughter because she used to quarrel with her regularly over minor issues. The woman confessed that she killed the girl by strangulating her late at night.

Police have lodged a first information report (FIR) against the accused and after producing her before the local court, she has been sent to prison.