Four suspects have been arrested, the police said on Saturday, a day after a seven-year-old girl was raped and killed in Karachi’s Quaidabad area. The development comes after search operations in Majeed Colony and its surrounding areas on Friday night.

The first information report was registered under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 376 (punishment for rape), 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the 144 [age of fourteen]), and 302 (punishment of qatl-i-amd) under the Pakistan Penal Code against unidentified persons. The case was registered at the Quaidabad Police Station.

“My 6/7 year-old daughter went to my younger brother Qabool Ahmed’s house in Kachi Abadi near Khaqan Hotel Muslimabad Colony on November 15 and stayed there. On November 16 at 3pm, she went to madressah to study with his brother’s children. My daughter did not return home when my brother’s children returned home at 5pm. We started searching for her,” it said.

The father, Maqbool Ahmed, said that they informed the police about it the same day. He got to about her daughter via his younger brother on November 18 when he reached the police station to report her missing daughter. “The body was found at the empty plot near Makki Masjid Muslimabad,” his brother told him via phone.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center.

The family of the minor blocked the road in the area for more than an hour in protest against the incident on Friday. They demanded the arrest of the culprits. The road was cleared after negotiations with the police

In a statement, Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said the body of a minor was brought from the jurisdiction of PS Quaidabad with extensive injuries all over the body, especially the head.

“Initial examination is highly suggestive of vaginal and anal rape. Swabs have been prepared for semen serology and DNA profiling and cross-matching,” it said, “postmortem findings are suggestive of asphyxia as the cause of death. However, visceral samples have been preserved for toxicological screening.”

The post-mortem of the body was completed on Friday. Evidence of rape and torture was found in the preliminary examination of the body.

The minor went missing on Wednesday afternoon, according to her father Maqbool Ahmed. He claimed that the police instead of registering a case of kidnapping kept avoiding the incident for two days. The grieved father said that his relatives informed him about the body, which was found in a garbage bin, according to initial reports, in the Landhi area.

SSP Malir Irfan Bahadur on Friday said that a case would be registered and the investigation would be continued.