Pakistan captures suspect in killing of young girl
Officials identified on-the-run Mohammed Imran as the suspected rapist and killer of Zainab Ansari, 7, whose killing sparked outrage across the country earlier this month.
Zainab was snatched in early January as she walked to a Quran class. Her parents were away on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, and the girl and her two sisters and brother were watched over by her aunts and uncles who all live in the same house in the impoverished neighborhood of Kasur.
A man suspected in the rape and killing of a seven-year-old Pakistani girl has been arrested in a breakthrough in a case that has stirred outrage across the country, officials said on Tuesday.
The child, Zainab Ansari, who went missing from her aunt's house on January 4, was raped and murdered, and her body was found on January 9 in a garbage dump.
The government spokesman in Punjab province, Malik Ahmed Khan, said that the suspect, identified as Mohammed Imran, was arrested near the city of Kasur where Zainab was killed earlier this month.
TRT World's Joseph Hayat has more.
The suspect was familiar with girl's family, Geo News reported, quoting police sources. It said Imran has also confessed to his crime.
The girls' killing provoked widespread public anger and violent protests, resulting in the killing of two demonstrators.
String of child rapes and murders
Zainab's killing also exposed a string of child abductions and slayings by a suspected serial predator.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the same suspect is linked to the deaths of eight other children.
TRT World spoke to journalist Kamran Yousaf in Islamabad regarding the significance of the arrest and what led police to the suspect.
Zainab's father, Mohammed Amin, demanded in an interview with a local television that the culprit be hanged.
The suspect's DNA matched with the samples on record, but the government has yet to confirm this information, local newspaper Dawn reported.
Reports said that immediately after the police claim, large number of people gathered outside the house of the suspect in Kasur, adding to the tensions in the city.
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