LAHORE: Police recovered remains of the body of a minor girl who was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by her father’s friend for ransom in the Batapur area.

Police recovered her clothes, hair and bones from the nearby jungle of Batapur, suspecting that the wild animals had attacked and ate most parts of her body.

Fajar (6), daughter of Arshad, was kidnapped two weeks back when she was playing in the street and suspect Kashif took her to an undisclosed location.

A police official said the gruesome crime story came to light when police arrested the alleged criminal and he confessed to his crime, saying he had planned to kidnap her for Rs1m ransom.

Kashif had first borrowed Rs500,000 from Arshad and later borrowed more money from him to purchase a house. As his friend demanded his money back, Kashif used delaying tactics and then hatched the plan to kidnap Arshad’s daughter for ransom to give him back the same amount.

The police official said Kashif strangled the child 30 minutes after kidnapping her from the street to conceal his identity and crime. He threw her body in the jungle and called her father for ransom, using the voice changer device. He made two calls and police arrested him when the investigating officers got a solid clue that he was behind the crime.

A CCTV camera also helped the police trace the suspect. The samples of the clothes and parts of the body recovered from the jungle had been sent for forensics while the mobile phone of the suspect had also been seized by the police.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2024