Kidnapped 5-year-old was ‘raped, bludgeoned to death’

Karachi police have arrested the man who found the body on Saturday; samples sent for DNA testing

KARACHI:

A five-year-old girl whose body was found in PIB Colony on Saturday night had been raped and bludgeoned to death with a heavy stone, it was reported on Monday.

M*'s body was found wrapped in a sheet in a garbage dump near Essa Nagri. She had disappeared after leaving her residence to buy confectionary on Friday morning.

According to the medical report released by Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre medico-legal officer Dr Zakia, the child had been raped and then hit on the head with a heavy object.

The police arrested a suspect, Nawaz, near the location where the body was found. His DNA samples have been sent to a laboratory for forensic examination.

Nawaz was reportedly seen at the ground before the body was discovered. In his initial statement, he told the police he had gone there to look for panaflex in the rubbish heap, adding that his house's roof leaked when it rained and so he wanted to cover it with panaflex or plastic.

Sources in the police said that the call records of the detained man's mobile phone were also being checked. They added that he had not confessed to assaulting or killing M.

M's grandfather said that though the deceased's face could not be recognised when the body was found, they identified her through her clothing.

He added that the body had been found by Nawaz, who had recently moved to the neighbourhood and was living with his sons at a short distance from the victim's house.

Jamshed, an area resident, claimed that Nawaz's young son, who had previously been arrested on murder charges, had disappeared after the incident. "When area people questioned Nawaz about what he was doing at the garbage dump at midnight [when M's body was found], he said he had gone to look for pieces of wood and plywood for his house."

Meanwhile, the police carried out a search of houses in the area that are not inhabited by families, as well as houses that are under construction in the neighbourhood.

PIB SHO Shakir Hussain said that the case would be solved soon, while DNA testing would be carried out for those arrested on the basis of suspicion.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2020.