In yet another horrific act of child abuse, four-year-old Hareem Fatima, was murdered after being allegedly sexually assaulted in the Kohat district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). In a major development in the case, CCTV footage of a suspect has come to the limelight.
The body of the minor was found in a drain in the Khattak Colony area, the K-P police official said on Thursday. Reportedly, the girl went missing a day earlier. A local resident of Kohat filed a first information report (FIR) in connection with the disappearance of his granddaughter, the police said.
According to the complaint, Hareem, the victim, went out of the house to play with other children. However, she never returned.
Police retrieved the body and sent it to the KDA divisional headquarters hospital. Moreover, a case registered in connection with the murder and investigation began.
Earlier, the family of the minor victim claimed she had been sexually assaulted. However, sadly sexual abuse has now been confirmed. Moreover, a post-mortem report into the incident revealed that the suspect strangulated the girl.
Here is the CCTV footage
According to the footage, a suspect wearing a veil could be spotted alongside the girl as both moved in a similar direction from where the body of Hareem was later recovered by police.
The police have tried to trace the suspect from the footage. Moreover, they claimed that they have tightened the noose around the culprits and would soon arrest them. On Saturday, the police investigated the female relatives of the victim.
A Kohat police spokesperson said they have launched the probe and investigating it from all angles. “We have included some female relatives of Hareem Fatima in the inquiry process,” he added while hoping that they would soon arrest the culprits involved in the heinous act.
Social media continues to abuzz over the gut-wrenching incident with netizens demanding strict action against those found involved in it. In addition to this, they urge the authorities to devise proper mechanisms to avert such incidents in the future.
This horrific case comes months after the ghastly incident that shocked the entire nation. A group of men allegedly raped a Karachi woman and her four-year-old daughter in the Kashmore area of Sindh. The woman had traveled to the city from Karachi after the main suspect duped her on a job offer.
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