According to a police statement released on Thursday, Karachi police have arrested a man who “confessed” to killing a three-year-old girl after trying to rape her.
The child’s body was found on a roadway in Gulberg Block 11’s Qabail Colony of Karachi early on Wednesday, according to the police.
The child’s older siblings left their home to attend a nearby seminary, and Dawn followed them, according to Central Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqi. When the mother realized the child was missing, she began looking for her but was unable to find her.
SSP Siddiqi continued, saying that the child’s body was discovered in a slum area on the street thirty minutes later. After that, the body was brought to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for the necessary legal and medical procedures.
The investigation was then launched by Gulberg Police by filing a case under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) crimes sections 302 (intentional murder) and 34 (common purpose).
The suspect, who was taken into custody a few hours after the search operation, has admitted to carrying out the crime, according to the police statement released today.
“The suspect stated that the child was playing in his rickshaw when he brought her to his house and attempted to sexually assault her; when she cried out, he killed her by strangling her with a cloth,” the statement read.
A “post-mortem was conducted and all samples have been collected,” police physician Summaiya Syed said Dawn, adding that the reason of death and any suspicions related sexual assault had been kept under wraps.
Children are still in danger.
The primary suspect in the gang rape and killing of a 12-year-old girl in Karachi’s Saddar neighborhood was taken into custody by police in August. Together with her mother, the victim resided beneath the Lilly Bridge at Cantt Station.
According to the authorities, she was playing at the bus stop when the perpetrators abducted her. They then brought her to their workplace, where they carried out the horrific deed.
A non-governmental organization (NGO) advocating for children’s rights, Sahil, released a study stating that 1,630 incidences of child abuse were recorded nationwide this year.
862 occurrences of child sexual abuse, 668 cases of kidnapping, 82 cases of missing children, and 18 cases of child marriages were reported in the first half of 2024. Additionally, 48 incidences of pornography following sexual abuse were noted this year.
According to six-month data, 662 percent of the victims out of the total recorded instances were boys, and 662 percent were girls.
