TAXILA: A special investigation team (SIT) constituted by Attock police has launched a hunt to trace the main suspect involved in the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl.

The suspect (30) is a native of Kohat and used to teach the holy Quran to children of the area. The victim’s father pointed out in the first information report (FIR) that his daughter had gone for her Quran lesson and went missing from there.

Sources privy to the investigation said the suspect went underground along with his elderly mother soon after the incident. Police collected evidence from the suspect’s rented house where he allegedly washed his blood-stained clothes soon after committing the crime.

The investigation team found out that he was expelled from a mosque for his involvement in immoral activities and had graduated from Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak.

A senior medical officer revealed that the victim was subjected to severe torture before she was murdered. When contacted, District Police Officer Umer Salamat confirmed that some of the relatives of the main suspect were taken into custody for interrogation.

Police will arrest him within the next 24 hours after clues about his whereabouts are uncovered and we are intensively working on this case, he added.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2022