KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday remanded two relatives in police custody, who were allegedly involved in the killing of a minor girl in Quaidabad last month.

On June 24, three-year-old Kalsoom was kidnapped and later her body was found in a gunny bag just outside her residence in Muslimabad Colony.

The investigating officer of the case brought the suspects — a male cousin and sister-in-law of the father of the deceased girl — before the judicial magistrate (Malir) and sought their physical custody for interrogation.

The IO informed the court that the relatives of the victim’s father were involved in the offence and claimed that they had confessed their crime to police during initial interrogation.

After hearing the IO, the court remanded them in police custody for four days and directed the IO to produce them at next hearing along with the progress report.

A day before, the police had claimed that the female suspect allegedly killed the minor girl over longstanding family disputes, while the male suspect allegedly subjected the body to a “criminal assault to make the case appear to be a rape-cum-murder in an attempt to deceive the family and divert public attention”.

The male suspect allegedly disclosed to the police that his sister and the girl’s mother had domestic disputes and frequently quarrelled with one another.

The police said because of this old grudge, the female suspect brought Kalsoom to her home, where she allegedly strangled her to death. She then allegedly stuffed the body in a gunny bag and asked the male suspect to dump it.

A case was registered at Quaidabad police station under Sections 363, 376, 377, 201, 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2026