QUETTA, June 3: The crime branch of police on Saturday arrested a man who confessed kidnapping and killing eight-year-old Shagufta Riaz Paracha.

A team of senior police officers interrogated some suspects in the case, including rickshaw driver Ghulam Murtaza, who confessed committing the crime.

“The accused knew Shagufta because he worked with her uncle, Aamir Paracha, for five years,” crime branch SSP Asif Paracha said at a news conference here on Saturday. The IGP of Balochistan was also present.

He said that according to the accused, he made the plan two months ago and kidnapped Shagufta in his rickshaw from the Fatima Jinnah Road on March 29, telling the girl her uncle wanted to see her.

The accused told police he took the girl to Railway Inspector Colony on the Zarghoon Road where he tried to assault her but on her resistance, he strangled her and later killed her with a knife. He said he threw her body at an abandoned place in the colony.

The SSP said police had recovered the knife used in the murder.