KARACHI, March 7: The mystery of a seven-year-old girl’s murder was resolved on Wednesday when the victim’s uncle confessed to have kidnapped the girl for ransom and killed her to avoid arrest.

The Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC), which investigated the case, said that Iqra, daughter of Mohammed Saleem, was kidnapped on February 25 in Ittehad Town, falling in the limits of the Pakistan Bazaar police.

Iqra’s father, an employ (driver) of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, lodged a case. He received a call from an unknown caller who demanded Rs500,000 as ransom for her release. However, after a series of negotiations, the kidnapper agreed to accept Rs200,000.

SP Farooq Awan of the AVCC told Dawn that the suspect, Tanveer Ahmed, husband of Saleem’s sister, was arrested when the complainant cast suspicion on his brother-in-law.

Saleem told investigators that his daughter had gone to Tanveer’s house in the neighbourhood at around 11.30am and had been missing since then. “Moreover, the suspect kept on asking Saleem if he had received any ransom call, though the complainant had not disclosed to anyone that he had received such a call,” SP Awan said.

The SP said that during the grilling, the 26-year-old suspect stated that he had slaughtered the girl in his home and thrown the body in Saddar and head in Mochko.

He said the police also seized the knife used in the offence, belongings of the victim and the mobile phone SIM the suspect had used to make a call for ransom on a lead given by the suspect, a labourer at a looms factory.

The victim’s headless body was found wrapped in plastic bags in Saddar next day, and the head recovered two days later from a drain in Mochko police limits.

The police said the suspect hailed from Chiniot and had married the complainant’s younger sister, who hailed from Hangu, about two and a half years back.