KARACHI: A five-member team will investigate the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Karachi’s Quaidabad area, as the police have claimed to have arrested four suspects in search operations in Majeed Colony and its surrounding areas.

DSP Ghulam Muhammad Mahar, the SDPO Quaidabad, will lead the investigation team, said the order from the police office issued on Saturday. PI Ashraf Jan, SIP Arshad Awan, and SIP Zakirullah Khan are the members while SI Hafeez Tanoli is the investigation officer of the case.

“The head of the team will ensure close supervision in the investigation of the above cited case,” it said, adding that the team will investigate the case “jointly and purely on merit” and put up progress before SSP Investigation-II, East Zone, Karachi Muhammad Arab Mahar.

The heinous crime, which is the second reported this month in the metropolitan city of Sindh, was reported on November 18 after the girl’s father Maqbool Ahmed came to the police station to report her missing daughter.

The FIR is 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) of the Pakistan Penal Code against unidentified persons at the Quaidabad Police Station.

According to Maqbool, his family started searching for the girl after she did not return home from the madrassah on November 16. The first information report states that the father got to know about her daughter’s body via a phone call from his younger brother.

“The body was found at the empty plot [which was apparently treated as a trash site] near Makki Masjid Muslimabad.” It was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center for legal formalities.

“Initial examination is highly suggestive of vaginal and anal rape. Swabs have been prepared for semen serology and DNA profiling and cross-matching,” Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said in a statement. Postmortem findings are suggestive of asphyxia (the state of being unable to breathe, causing death or loss of consciousness) as the cause of death.

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 story remains the same. Only characters change,” Dr Summaiya said in a Twitter thread. “This one has a ‘naughty’ little girl, who didn’t know how to sit still. Her tooth broken, face bruised to pulp, sexually assaulted. Then thrown in trash…”

She described the case as a source of “collective shame”.

The incident was reported to police a day before the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse. Zindagi Trust, a NGO run by singer-cum-philanthropist Shehzad Roy, set its demand from the state for child protection in a tweet. These are as follows:

• Life Skills Based Education (LSBE) in all schools, including private schools, with parent education being a critical aspect
• Create awareness and sensitization through media for parents to listen to children and support them
• Special police units established at every level with officers trained to deal with cases of child sexual abuse
• Activate and mobilize their Social Welfare Departments and Child Protection Units
• Provide Free Legal Aid to survivors of child abuse
• Establish more shelters for survivors of child sexual abuse and train their staff to provide appropriate care
• Provide free counseling and therapy for survivors of child abuse by therapists trained in the specialty
• Mandate hospitals and clinics to provide awareness to and train and sensitize staff to provide appropriate care to survivors of child sexual abuse