Two relatives arrested in murder of three-year-old girl in Karachi’s Quaidabad

KARACHI: Police on Monday said they had arrested two relatives in connection with the rape and murder case of three-year-old Kalsoom in Karachi’s Quaidabad area.

According to police, the child was abducted on June 24 and her body was later found in a gunny bag outside her home in Muslimabad Colony. Malir SSP Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada told a press conference that the two suspects — the girl’s male cousin and her father’s sister-in-law — had been taken into custody.

The senior officer said the suspects "confessed their involvement in the murder" and alleged that the woman killed the child because of an old family dispute. He said the male suspect later subjected the body to a "criminal assault" in an attempt to make the incident appear to be a rape-cum-murder and to mislead the family as well as shift public attention.

Police said the male suspect told investigators that his sister and the victim’s mother had frequent domestic quarrels. Investigators alleged that because of this grudge, the female suspect took Kalsoom to her house, strangled her there, put the body in a gunny bag and then asked the male suspect to dispose of it.