KARACHI: Police on Thursday launched an investigation into the kidnapping, rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Korangi on Wednesday and prepared a sketch of a possible suspect and sent DNA samples of the body to a Karachi University institute, officials told Dawn.

Landhi SP Shahnawaz Chachar said that Zaman Town police had registered a case under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and kidnapping, rape and murder charges of the minor girl against unidentified suspect(s).

A DSP rank officer has been assigned the responsibility for investigation, added the officer.

East Zone DIG Saqib Ismail Memon said that “multi-direction probe is under way based on statements of witnesses, family and area residents”.

He added that “several suspects have been taken into custody and are being interrogated”.

The senior officer said that DNA samples collected from the body had been sent to the relevant laboratory in the University of Karachi.

The DIG said that the sketch of a suspect had been prepared with the help of witnesses’ statements.

According to contents of the FIR reviewed by Dawn on Thursday, the victim’s father said that he worked at a private firm and had been living in G-Area of Korangi for the past 11 years as a tenant and had four children, including a son.

The complainant said that he along with his three daughters aged between two and nine years was sitting in a street near his home as electricity had gone in the locality at around 10.15pm on July 27. After some time, he returned home along with his two daughters while his third daughter aged six years was playing with other children.

At around 10.45pm, his nine-year-old daughter informed him that their sister did not come back. The father said that he immediately went out and looked for his daughter. He also inquired from his neighbours but could not find her. However, the next day at around 5.45am, he came to know that the body of a minor girl was lying in a garbage dump near the wall of KTS School-10 in G-Area market.

He along with his neighbours went there and found that it was the body of his daughter.

He informed Madadgar-15 and police came and took the body to a hospital in an ambulance for medico-legal formalities.

Additional police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where the girl’s post-mortem examination was carried out said that her autopsy showed that she had been raped, sodomised and then murdered.

Meanwhile, Karachi police chief Imran Yaqoob Minhas on Thursday night took notice of “unprofessional behavior” of the Madadgar-15 police officer with father of the victim and ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2021