PESHAWAR: The local police have arrested the main accused in the Badbher girl assault and murder case.

The man is a neighbour of the seven-year-old, whose charred body was found in a graveyard on the outskirts of the provincial capital on Nov 20, a day after she went missing.

Capital city police officer Mohammad Ali Gandapur, SSP (operations) Mansoor Aman and SP (Saddar Circle) Waqar Khan told a news conference at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines here that the main accused was held during a raid on his hideout in Khyber tribal district.

Mr Gandapur said the accused told police during initial interrogation that he sexually assaulted the girl before killing her and torching her body.

Badbher villagers torch his house

He said a special investigation team was quizzing the accused.

The CCPO said the police teams profiled around 1,000 residents of the area, collected fingerprints of around 500 suspects and analysed around 5,000 phone calls.

He said 200 suspects were also interrogated during investigation.

Mr Gandapur said the arrest of the main accused was made in Zakhakhel area of Khyber tribal district after thorough investigation.

A senior police official told Dawn that the police trailed the accused after he didn’t appear before them to give sample for forensic examination.

He said as the police probe progressed, the evidence implicating the accused in the crime emerged.

The official said the key evidence recovered from the graveyard was a drawstring (azarband) used by the main accused to tie the girl’s body to his motorcycle for transportation.

He said the police’s investigators seized part of that drawstring along with sex pills during a raid on the accused’s house.

The official said a woman of the village saw the accused return from the graveyard in early hours of the murder day.

He said the accused later fled to Zakhakhel area and the police learned about his hideout from another suspects arrested on Thursday.

The official said police teams rushed to the area after contacting the district police officer of Khyber, who tasked two local station house officers with accompanying the teams for the raid.

He said after the arrest, the accused told police investigators that he was alone at home when the minor girl entered the premises and that he killed her after sexual assault, shifted the body in the dark to a local graveyard and doused petrol on it before setting it on fire.

Meanwhile, angry villagers torched the accused’s house after learning about his arrest over sexual assault and murder charges.

Also in the day, provincial police chief Dr Sanaullah Abbasi announced cash prizes and commendation certificates for the police officials, who arrested the main accused in the case.

In a statement issued here, the police said members of the investigation team were called to the central police office, where they were rewarded.

SSP (Peshawar) Mansoor Aman, SSP (investigation) Nausher Khan, SP (cantonment) Waqar Ahmad, SDPO Badhabar Riaz Khalil, SDPO (Gulbahar) Luqman Khan and other officials with cash prizes.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2020