Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested a 19-year-old suspect in connection with the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl, 12 hours after the incident occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district.

Bajaur District Police Officer (DPO) Waqas Rafique, while addressing a press conference along with police officials at his office, said the child’s body was found in a drainage channel a day ago.

“Upon examining the body, it became clear she had been murdered,” Rafique said. “As information came to light, we formed special teams under my leadership to investigate the incident.”

According to the Bajaur police chief, a postmortem examination confirmed that the child had been raped before being killed.

“We worked throughout the night, using human intelligence and profiling the neighbourhood,” Rafique explained. “Using this information, we were able to make arrests. After interrogating the main suspect, he confessed to the crime and described what he did.

“The suspect raped the girl by luring her with the promise of food, and later raped and strangled her to death,” Rafique said, adding that police found child pornography on his mobile phone and that the evidence was sent for forensic analysis.

The police chief said that the suspect was related to the victim.

Suspect held for allegedly raping minor

Meanwhile, in Shangla, police on arrested one of two suspects accused of raping an 11-year-old boy and filming a compromised video of him that went viral on WhatsApp, police said.

Shangla DPO Imran Khan told Dawn.com, “One of the two suspects had been arrested and efforts were underway to arrest the other one.”

Police arrested the suspect who had recorded the video and recovered his mobile phone that was used to film the incident, which occurred in the Naredary area of Alpuri. After the video went viral, police lodged a first information report (FIR) on February 17 and initiated an inquiry into the case.

According to the FIR, the complainant told police that he was on his way home with the suspects when they took turns sexually abusing him while filming his ordeal.

Police lodged the FIR under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Sections 48 and 53 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act.

The sections include punishment for child pornography, inciting a child to beg or borrow, exposure to seduction, abetting the escape of a child, child trafficking, and sexual abuse.

Data from the nongovernmental organisation Sahil revealed that a total of 1,630 cases of child abuse were reported across the country in the first six months of 2024.

During that period, 862 cases of child sexual abuse, 668 cases of abduction, 82 cases of missing children and 18 cases of child marriages were reported. Additionally, 48 cases of pornography after sexual abuse were also recorded.