SARGODHA: The main suspect in the case pertaining to rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Sargodha city was killed in an alleged encounter with a Crime Control Department (CCD) team, in which a police constable was also injured.

As per the FIR No 104/2026, registered on the complaint of Sargodha Crime Control Department (CCD) Station House Officer (SHO) Hafiz Naveed Akram, he, along with a police team, was manning a picket at the canal bridge near Mitha Lak, in the Jhal Chakian police limits on Wednesday, looking for a suspect, Arsalan, who had allegedly escaped from the police custody after he was detained in connection with the rape and murder of a minor girl, Mantaha Zahra, a resident of Block No 8, Sargodha city.

The police had registered FIR No 103/26 against the fleeing suspect.

The SHO says that he received information that the suspect was present on a premises in the area, along with his accomplices.

He had allegedly escaped from police custody during investigation

He says that when the CCD team reached there, Arsalan and his accomplices opened fire on the police, which was returned. During the crossfire with the suspects, a bullet hit a CCD Constable, Aamir, in the shoulder, he adds.

The SHO claims that after an exchange of fire for around 10 minutes, the firing from the suspects’ side stopped. When the police searched the area, they found Arsalan lying dead “in the firing of his accomplices,” he adds.

The police registered a case against the fleeing accomplices of Arsalan under Section 302 of the PPC and relevant sections of the Arms Ordinance.

Local sources confirmed Arsalan was picked in connection with the rape and murder case.

The constable injured inn the encounter was shifted to a government hospital. The body of the suspect was also shifted to the hospital for the postmortem examination.

The police are looking for the fleeing suspects.District Police Officer (DPO) Sohaib Ashraf told the media that four nominated suspects, including Arsalan, had been detained and handed over to the CCD for further investigation, from where the prime suspect had allegedly escaped.

Giving details of the police probe’s findings, he said: “Mantaha left her house at 11.15am on Monday and at 11.25am her parents realised that she had not returned yet. The family immediately started searching for the girl and for the next one hour or so, they continued to searching for her on their own.”

He said when the parents could not find the girl, they first contacted the police at 12.45pm and reported she was missing.

The DPO added that there was only one CCTV camera installed in the street where the girl’s house was located. The police immediately obtained the CCTV footage from the camera, which showed that the girl went inside a grocery shop near her house, but did not come out of it.He further said the police immediately searched the shop, and on not finding the girl there, expanded the search to the building’s upper floor, where her body was finally found.

Meanwhile, the regional administration and police high-ups visited the victim’s house and offered condolences to her family, according to an official handout.

Commissioner Hafiz Shaukat Ali, Deputy Commissioner Hussain Ahmed Raza Chaudhry and others also offered fateha for the murdered girl.In a related incident, a group of youngsters pelted the grocery shop, visited by the victim, with stones, smashing its windowpanes, to express their agony over the rape and murder of a minor girl.

As per official figures, so far as many as 387 cases of child sexual abuse have been registered in Punjab this year.

Dawn has learn that the parents of the dead suspect, Arsalan, refused to claim his body, allegedly after receiving threats of a mob attack during his funeral and burial rites.

Arsalan was later buried in the graveyard of another village, Chak 58, by the police and none of his family members participated in the funeral and burial, police sources say.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2026