Investigation makes headway in girl's rape-murder case

The fingerprints found on the clothes of a five-year-old girl - who was abducted, raped and murdered before her burnt body was found in PIB Colony - and those collected from the bed of one of the accused, Faiz alias Faizu, have matched, it was reported on Thursday.

According to sources affiliated with investigation authorities, the police have received the fingerprint report, which confirms that the fingerprints found on the minor, M*'s clothes, are those of Faiz.

The police are now only waiting for the release of DNA report to duly disclose the arrest, the sources said.

So far, three persons, including Faiz, have been arrested in the case and two of them, Faiz and Abdullah, have confessed to the crime.

The police submitted the confessional statements of the two accused before an anti-terrorism court on Tuesday.

According to the police, Faiz, a tailor who lived near M's house, confessed to kidnapping the minor girl with his friend Abdullah, said to be an Afghan national and a scavenger. Faiz told the police that he and Abdullah brought the five-year-old to his house's rooftop and they both raped her, causing her death. According to Faiz's statement, the two men then wrapped M's body in a cloth and threw it in a garbage dump.

The report stated that the police were able to trace and arrest the accused through the cloth in which the child's body was found. The police searched for the owners of the cloth, and found a tailor, Muhammad Javed, who said he had given the fabric to his worker Faiz. Further investigation found Faiz to be a habitual criminal and the police proceeded to arrest him. His accomplice Abdullah was arrested on information provided by him, stated the report.

Meanwhile, a third accused in the case, Rab Nawaz, we declared innocent by the investigation officer (IO) during the hearing, who said no evidence could be found against him. He said that a report regarding Nawaz's release would be presented before the judicial magistrate.

However, he, along with Faiz and Abdullah, was sent on physical remand till September 26 when the government lawyer objected to the IO's statement.

M was kidnapped after she left her house on September 4 to go to a nearby store. Her body was found the next night in a garbage dump in Essa Nagri, wrapped in a sheet. Medical reports indicated she was raped and then bludgeoned to death with a heavy stone.

Nawaz was arrested near the location where the body was found and was reportedly seen at the ground before the body was discovered. M's grandfather has claimed that the body was found by Nawaz.