The family members of a young boy and girl took out a protest rally in Hyderabad on Thursday evening after the two siblings — who had gone missing from the city's GOR Colony area on Monday — were murdered allegedly by a man the family says lived in their neighbourhood.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered on their parents' complaint on Wednesday, the 11-year-old boy and his 10-year-old sister went missing on Monday after they left their house to fetch some ice. When they did not return after a while, the parents mounted a search, but to no avail.

The same night, police found the boy critically wounded near the airport after which he was taken to the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) city branch, where police recorded his statement. The boy, who had received stabbing wounds, succumbed to his injuries the next day.

The minor girl's body was found late on Wednesday night in Bismillah City — a private housing scheme within the jurisdiction of B-section police station — after which it was handed over to her heirs.

The postmortem of both children was conducted at LUH city branch by medico-legal officers of Shah Bhitai Hospital Latifabad — where the two were initially taken. Initial findings of the postmortem were not immediately available.

MLOs have taken samples from the girl's body to determine whether she was sexually assaulted before being killed. Ambreen Siyal, a counsel for the family, said she "strongly assume[s] that the girl was subjected to criminal assault".

She said there was no enmity between the suspect and the victims' family.

“The boy while naming the suspect during his statement to the police said that he [the suspect] had taken the siblings on a motorbike with the promise of buying them some goods," said Zulquarnain Talpur, another counsel for the family.

He revealed that the suspect has now been arrested by police.

“He was living in our area for the past eight to 10 years and we were completely unaware that he had such evil intentions regarding our children and that he will go to this extent,” said the grieving father, who was protesting outside the press club with his daughter's coffin placed in front of him.

Once the boy was found, Talpur and Siyal had on Tuesday evening approached Airport police station for the registration of a case but they were told that since the boy had gone missing from within the GOR police’s jurisdiction, the case would have to be lodged there.

Talpur said that he then approached the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police for the registration of an FIR after which a case was lodged at the GOR police station on Wednesday, a day after the boy's death. He regretted the delay in the registration of the FIR.