LARKANA: Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh has taken suo motu notice of rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl whose body was found floating in a pond near a hotel in the city on April 25.

SHC registrar Ghulam Rasool Samoon sent a letter to the district and sessions judge of Larkana on Wednesday and sought report on the case. The SHC directed DIG of Larkana, SSP and investigation officer of the case to appear in person in the court on May 7 and submit a report on the case.

Larkana police had rounded up 27 suspects and DIG Abdullah Shaikh had formed an 11-member committee headed by SSP to investigate the case whose FIR was registered with Haideri police station under Sections 302-364-337A(I)-337F(I) PPC.

Sources said that during interrogation two of the suspects had confessed to have kidnapped the victim with the intention of sexual assault but police had not yet confirmed it nor divulged names of the suspects.

However, the two kept changing their statements and blaming each other that the victim suffocated to death when one of them was trying to rape her, said the sources.

Police surgeon Dr Saleem Shaikh had said that according to preliminary findings the victim had died due to asphyxia as signs of struggle were present on her face, arms and other body parts.

He said that most probably hands were used to block her breathing from nose and mouth as blood stains around both parts were present and attempt was made to rape her.

KHAIRPUR: A large number of students of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Z.A. Bhutto campus took out a rally from central library of the campus and marched up to zero point on Wednes­day, demanding arrest of the rapist and killers of the minor girl.

The student leaders Shafqat Bhayo, Noman Soomro and others said that it was distressing to see that the rapists and killers of the innocent girl had not been arrested even after seven days since the incident.

They demanded the killers be arrested and hanged in public without further delay and said that Sindh police had completely failed in the case as they could not even find out who the culprits were.

They said that the innocent girl had gone through the same agony and faced the same agony as Kasur’s innocent girl Zainab, hence response to it should be of equal proportions.

They appealed to prime minister, Chief Justice of Pakistan, IGP Sindh and chief minister to provide justice to the victim’s family by arresting and awarding exemplary punishment to the culprits.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2018