KARACHI: The Malir police on Thursday claimed to have arrested the ‘main suspect’ in a rape-cum-murder case of a minor girl during an action carried out in Mansehra (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). The crime was committed about three months ago in the Quaidabad area of Karachi.

“The police have arrested the suspect in the Gogi area of Mansehra,” said Malir SSP-Investigation Arab Mahar.

Speaking at press conference, the officer said that the suspect confessed to have raped and murdered the six-year-old girl; he claimed that another person was also involved in the crime, the police officer said.

SSP Mahar recalled that the girl was found raped and murdered in the Muslimabad area of Quaidabad on Nov 18, 2022. The police obtained blood samples of 59 suspects for DNA. During the procedure, the main suspect was identified. He had fled the Quaidabad area.

The samples of his brother and another close relative were obtained and the same matched with the main suspect’s samples with those of the victim girl. The police formed several teams which, with help of technology and human intelligence, reached the suspect in Mansehra and brought him to the city, the SSP said.

Suspect killed in ‘encounter’

A suspected robber was shot dead and another one was wounded and arrested during, what police described as an ‘encounter’ in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Thursday morning.

Officials at the Aziz Bhatti police station claimed that the encounter took place in Block 13-D near the Jeelani area. The two suspects were wounded and one of them, Shan George, 28, died a little later, they said.

The wounded suspect was identified as Sagheer Sarafraz. They were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The police claimed to have seized two pistols with rounds and one motorcycle from them.

In another alleged encounter, also in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, a suspected mugger was wounded and arrested, they claimed.

They claimed that the exchange of fire took place near the Federal Urdu University. The held suspect was identified as Huzaifa alias Babu, 27. A pistol was seized from him, they further claimed.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2023