Three brothers remanded in minor girl’s rape and murder case

The administrative judge of Karachi’s anti-terrorism courts remanded on Monday three suspects in police custody for five days in a case pertaining to the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl.

Police presented the suspects, whose names have been withheld, before the judge, stating that they were neighbours of the victim and it was suspected that they raped her and then killed her.

At least 16 people were arrested on suspicion on Friday. The investigators had taken DNA samples from all of them and had sent them to a laboratory for crossmatching. The 10-year-old, a student of fourth grade, was found dead, a day after she had gone missing, in a water tank of the residential building that she lived in at Railway Colony in Bin Qasim Town on March 1.

Doctors at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, who examined the dead body, had said that the girl was subjected to rape before being strangled with a dupatta. They added that her body was carrying torture marks.

The family of the victim had also staged a protest over the incident, prompting the Sindh chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, to take notice of the horrific incident. The victim’s body was taken to Qambar Shahdadkot, her native town, for burial.

The East Zone police chief, DIG Amir Farooqi, had told media on Sunday that the suspects were brothers and one of them was the rapist who had already admitted to the crime. He added that the police were waiting for the DNA report.

Farooqi said that the main suspect, aged 21, told the investigators that he had killed the girl for fear of being identified. He added that the suspect had once worked at Bin Qasim Port and had been jobless for the past two weeks. Police have registered the case under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.