Not a case of sectarian hate: Murderer of 7-year-old girl arrested, say police

QUETTA:

Police on Friday announced the arrest of a neighbour of a seven-year-old Hazara girl who was strangled to death late last month.

The neighbour, identified as 24-year-old Junaid Shehzad, confessed to police that he had murdered the girl after a botched bid to molest her, SSP-Investigation Quetta-P Asad Raza told a news conference on Friday.

“We have arrested Shehzad who told the investigation team that he first tried to abuse the little girl at his house and later strangled her to conceal his crime,” the SSP said. The girl’s murder was earlier seen as an act of sectarian hatred.

He said Shehzad was a neighbour of the girl’s family in PSP Colony. The child’s body was found from the garbage dump near her house on October 29, hours after she went missing while playing outside her home. Her body bore multiple marks of violence—scars on the body and a red mark around the neck.

Shahzad confessed during interrogation that he tried to rape the victim. “She used to play with the sisters of Shahzad. On that day, the sisters of the suspect were in school and his parents were not home. He tried to rape her,” SSP said quoting the statement of the suspect. “The suspect feared that the girl will inform her parents about the rape attempt, which was why, he strangled her to death.”

SSP said that police had doubts that her neighbour could be involved in this heinous crime. “It is not a sectarian case and police are investigating the incident,” Asad Raza added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2014.