SIALKOT: Police recovered the body of a missing minor girl from the house of a neighbour who is suspected of raping and killing the girl in Suraj Chak village, Darman, in Zafarwal.

A local labourer’s six-year-old daughter had gone to a neighbour’s house on Sunday to give him a tool. The family told the police that she did not return home after that.

The father said the family started searching the neighbour’s house during which they found the girl’s body hidden in a steel trunk. Her mouth was tied with a piece of cloth and hands and legs with rubber, and she had been raped, killed and her body concealed in the trunk, he added.

The police took the body into custody.

Laisser Kalan police registered a case under sections 201 and 302 of the PPC against the neighbour, his two sons and some female members of the family.

The police claimed they had arrested the sons and handed over the girl’s body to the family after an autopsy.

The girl’s father told the media by phone that a preliminary postmortem report confirmed his daughter was raped. The family has urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to provide them justice.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2018