KARACHI: Police on Friday claimed to have solved the mystery of the murder of a minor boy in Federal B Area and arrested his teenage cousin for the heinous crime.

The body of seven-year-old Muhammad Aban was found in a deserted street not usually used by the general public behind the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases in F.B Area, Block-16, on Wednesday afternoon.

“Today, the police have arrested Sufayan Hanif, aged about 16 years, who is cousin of Aban,” Central SSP Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqi told Dawn.

He said that that the suspect and his divorced mother lived with her brother, Aban’s father, in the same house.

He said Sufayan looked after Aban on a daily basis when his both parents left for their jobs. It was Sufayan who had informed the family about Aban’s disappearance, he added.

During investigations, the police obtained CCTV footage from the area in which Sufayan was seen carrying Aban. Investigators showed the footage to the victim’s father and subsequently they questioned Sufayan who ‘confessed’ to have killed his cousin with a kitchen knife that was also recovered on a lead provided by him.

The police said that the suspect told the investigators that he made a ‘mistake’ by killing his cousin. He said he was ‘fed up’ with the boy, who often complained about him to his father.

He told the investigators that he left the home with Aban, took him towards the deserted street and slaughtered him with a kitchen knife. Then he returned home and informed Aban’s mother about his disappearance.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2024