An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 45-year-old man in the Kharkai suburbs of Mardan, police said on Sunday.

The suspect reportedly took the minor to the nearby fields where he allegedly subjected her to sexual abuse, Mardan District Police Officer Dr Mian Saeed informed DawnNews.

Police have arrested the suspect who confessed to his crime, after which a case has been registered against him, the DPO said.

The third-grade student has also recorded her statement with the police in which she said that she had been sexually abused by the suspect, Dr Saeed said.

Police said a medical test of the victim has also been conducted, the report of which will be available tomorrow (Monday).

However, an official at the hospital said that the girl had been subjected to sexual abuse.

Earlier this month, a four-year-old girl was raped and murdered in a sugarcane field in Mardan.

The toddler was playing outside her house in Mardan when she was picked up by an unidentified assailant on January 13, District Nazim Himayatullah Mayar had told Dawn earlier. A day later, she was found dead in a sugarcane field near her house.

Local authorities and doctors had expressed suspicion that the toddler was assaulted before she was strangled to death.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector-General of Police to submit a report on the case within 24 hours.

Since the beginning of 2018, there has been a marked upsurge in the reporting of sexual abuse cases across Pakistan. The brutal rape and murder of Zainab Ansari in Kasur earlier this month, in particular, shocked the entire country, with #JusticeforZainab becoming the rallying cry in a nationwide drive to end violence against children.