According to the police, the child’s body was found on a street in Karachi’s Qabail Colony of Gulberg Block 11 on Wednesday morning.
Dawn was previously informed by Central Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqi that the child’s older siblings had left their home to attend a nearby seminary when she followed them. When the child’s mother realized she was missing, she went outside to look for her, but she didn’t come back.
SSP Siddiqi added that the minor’s body was discovered on the street in a slum area half an hour later. After that, the body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medical and legal procedures.
After that, Gulberg Police began the investigation by registering a case under Pakistan’s Penal Code (PPC) sections 302 (intentional murder) and 34 (common intent).
The suspect, who was arrested within a few hours of the search operation, has admitted to the crime, according to the police statement today.
According to the statement, “The suspect said that child sat in his rickshaw while she was playing when he took her to his house and tried to sexually assault her, but he strangled her with a cloth and killed her” when she screamed.
In the meantime, Summaiya Syed, a police surgeon, told Dawn that a “post-mortem was conducted and all samples have been collected.” She also said that the cause of death and the suspicion of sexual violence had been kept under wraps.
Children are still in danger. In August, the main suspect in the gang rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Karachi’s Saddar district was apprehended. Together with her mother, the victim lived at Cantt Station beneath the Lilly Bridge.
According to the police, the suspects took her to their office, where they committed the heinous crime, while she was playing at the bus terminus.
As indicated by a report by Sahil, a non-legislative association (NGO) working for youngsters’ freedoms, a sum of 1,630 instances of kid misuse were accounted for the nation over this year.
862 cases of child sexual abuse, 668 cases of abduction, 82 cases of missing children, and 18 cases of child marriage were reported in the first six months of 2024. 48 cases of pornography involving sexual abuse were also reported this year.
Six months’ worth of data show that, out of the total cases that were reported, 668 41 percent were boys and 962 59% were girls.
