DADU: Police have arrested 15-year-old murder suspect, who confessed to strangling an eight-year-old girl to death in Kotri on April 8 and said he had been jobless for a long time and hungry for three days when he tried to snatch gold earrings from the girl and killed her when she threatened to tell on him.

Jamshoro SSP Tariq Nawaz told a press conference at his office on Thursday that the suspect Naveed Hazarewala told police investigators he had been under severe stress as he had not been able to feed his family for being jobless and only wanted Asia’s gold earrings. Asia lived in the same locality.

He had not himself eaten anything for three days and he had no intention to kill her but when he tried to snatch her gold jewels she threatened to tell his elders, forcing him to kill her by choking her to death, said the SSP quoting the suspect.

He said that the suspect sold to the earrings to a nearby goldsmith for Rs2,200 after killing the girl.

The suspect caught the girl when she was returning home after buying some goodies from a shop in the locality during Iftar time on 28th of Ramadan. He took the girl to a desolate place nearby and strangled her to death, he said.

“The parents kept searching the girl throughout the night and in the morning found her body,” said the SSP.

He said that a case had been registered at Kotri police station on a complaint lodged by the girl’s father Liaqat Mughal.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2024