PESHAWAR: A girl’s suspected killer on Monday formally confessed to sexually assaulting the seven-year-old before killing her and torching body in Badabher area last month.

He made the confession as the police produced him in the court of judicial magistrate Sanaullah here after the completion of three-day physical remand.

A police official told Dawn that the suspect, a neighbour of the deceased, sexually assaulted her in his house, where she had come to ask about his children, who were away.

The suspect revealed that he strangled the girl after assault and took the body to a local graveyard, where he doused petrol on it and torched it to hide the crime.

The court sent the suspect to jail on 14-day remand.

The girl’s charred body was found in the graveyard on Nov 19.

The suspect had gone into hiding after the incident prompting police investigators to suspect his involvement in the crime.

He was arrested by the police in Zakhakhel area of Khyber tribal district with the help of the local elders. The arrest was made public on Dec 11. An angry mob later torched his house in Badabher area.

The police said during investigation, they profiled around 1,000 residents of the area, collected fingerprints of around 500 suspects, analysed around 5,000 phone calls, and interrogated 200 suspects.

Few days before the murder, body of a four-year old boy with slit abdomen was found in fields in Badabher area. The police have yet to arrest the culprit(s).

The police recently announced that they had been working on the case and would arrest the killer(s) soon.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2020