KARACHI, Dec 15: An eight-year-old girl found dead on a vacant plot opposite the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre of Karachi University on Wednesday afternoon was identified on Thursday by her family at the Edhi morgue, police said.

The officials added that her parents had lodged a disappearance report with the Jauharabad police station after she had been kidnapped on Dec 12.

The body with marks of strangulation visible around her neck and torture on other parts was spotted in Block 2 of the Gulistan-i-Jauhar area and was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

It seemed that the girl had been strangled as she had contusion marks around her neck, said a duty officer at the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station. He also suspected that the child had been subjected to rape.

“The girl was playing outside her house in the F.B Area when she was kidnapped,” said Inspector Fareeduddin.

Asked about the cause of death, the inquiry officer said the postmortem report had been reserved and he would not speculate on it. But he said he could only confirm that there were contusion marks all over her body.

Speaking to Dawn, the victim’s father, Mohammad Nazeer, said that she was playing outside her house in Block 15 of the F.B Area where two camels had been brought to give a ride to children at around 5pm on Monday when she went missing.

“We lodged a disappearance report with the Jauharabad police station after we could not find her.”

It was on Thursday morning that the police advised the family to visit the Edhi morgue, where the body of a young girl had been brought, her father said. “Subsequently, we went to the mortuary and identified her,” he said.

Mr Nazeer said that he appealed to the Sindh governor to help the family get justice.

A case (FIR No 703/2011) was registered at the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station on behalf of the state on Thursday under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 34 (common intention), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.