A Pakistan Steel Mills employee was arrested by police from Steel Town on Friday on charges of murdering an eight-year-old child.

Police had found the body of a child, Mohammad Subhan, from a garbage dump behind a marriage hall near his home in Gulshan-e-Hadeed on Wednesday.

Subhan had been reported missing since August 14. He had not returned after leaving home to attend an Independence Day celebration.

Police later said the child's injuries suggested that he had been stabbed to death.

“Steel Town police have arrested one suspect, identified as Tasawar Abbas,” Senior Superintendent of Police Malir Rao Anwar said on Friday.

Anwar added that the suspect had been picked up from a bachelors' hostel in the Steel Town area, where he lived.

Anwar claimed that the knife used as the murder weapon, had been recovered by police, along with bloodstained clothes belonging to the suspect.

A police official, who requested anonymity, told Dawn that the suspect was familiar with the victim's family and had once visited his home, claiming to be a friend of the deceased's brother.

Possible motive

Anwar told Dawn that the suspect had taken the child with the intention of subjecting him to criminal assault; however, when the child resisted, the suspect initially throttled him and then stabbed him to death.

The officer revealed that the arrested suspect kept visiting the spot where he had thrown the body for two days and it was him (the suspect, Abbas) who informed the family about the body of the child lying there.

“He had also over-reacted during the funeral prayer of the victim: he was seen weeping,” said SSP Anwar.

The police officer said the suspect was detained when the Steel Town SHO saw a blood stain on his (the suspect’s) slippers. When he was grilled, the accused ‘confessed’ to killing the child, Anwar said.

Police are investigating the case further.