The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Gulf Today Report

Pakistani police have arrested the main accused in the 7-year-old girl rape and murder case in Khyber tribal region.

The man is a neighbour of the seven-year-old girl, whose charred body was found in a graveyard on the outskirts of the provincial capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Nov.20, a day after she went missing.

According to the local police in Peshawar city, the child left her house on the fateful day to buy sweets but never came back home. After searching for hours, her family registered a missing person complaint at the police station.

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“Later that day, we found the seven-year-old’s burnt body,” a police officer said. On Friday night (Dec.11), the police arrested the suspect during a raid in Khyber tribal area.

The suspect was the victim’s neighbour and lived two houses down from hers. “He had gone into hiding after committing the crime,” the officer said, adding that he was arrested by district Khyber’s police and later handed over to the Peshawar police.

The officer said the accused told police during initial interrogation that he sexually assaulted the girl before killing her and torching her body. After the arrest and identification of the suspect, the residents of Badhaber formed an angry mob, destroyed his house and then set it on fire.

The police immediately reached the site and took control of the situation. The blaze was doused and residents were sent back home.

On the other hand, a video of the man confessing to the crime has surfaced on social media. In the recording, he admits that he murdered the child, who he said was his cousin, and then threw the body in a graveyard.

The police have, however, not said anything about the video yet.