7-year-old girl raped, murdered in Karachi

The victim's body was found near the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi’s Clifton neighbourhood

KARACHI: A body of a seven-year-old girl who was reportedly raped and murdered was found on Friday near the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi’s Clifton neighbourhood.

Seven-year-old A*’ went missing Thursday night after she left her house in Abduallah Shah Ghazi Goth at around 9:30 pm.

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“We thought she left the home to visit her friends in the neighbourhood but when she did not come back despite the passage of several hours, we started searching for her,” her father Zahid Mehmood Arain, who is a labourer by profession, told The Express Tribune.

“Finally on Friday morning, we founded her body in a ditch surrounded by bushes,” he added.

Medics and police officials confirmed the victim was raped before her body was dumped.

An ambulance was called to shift her body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where doctors in their initial report confirmed that the girl was raped and subjected to sodomy before being murdered. The doctors also determined that the attack took place at night between Thursday and Friday.

Police have registered a case on the request of the victim's family against unidentified persons for raping and killing her.

“This is not the first time such an incident has occurred in the area,” DSP Sacchal Khalid Khan said. The official went on to add that the police believed that the culprit belonged to the same area.

“In the past, we have witnesses many such cases and in most of them, the culprit belonged to the same area as the victim.”

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“In such cases, the culprits kill the victims as they fear the consequences since the victims know them,” he explained.

The police have deputed their informers in the area while officers are recording statements of the victim’s family, relatives and neighbours.