Six-year-old Hazara girl murdered after attempted rape in Quetta

QUETTA-

Police in Balochistan are investigating after a six-year-old girl was strangled and dumped near a garbage heap after apparently being subjected to rape attempts.

The girl who was from the minority Hazara ethnic group, was found on Wednesday last week in Quetta, the capital of the restive southwestern province of Balochistan.

Hazaras are mostly Shia Muslims and have borne the brunt of the wave of sectarian violence that has swept Balochistan in recent years, mostly perpetrated by Sunni Muslim extremist groups.

“It is a heinous crime and police are making all out efforts to solve it,“ Inspector General of Police for Balochistan, Amlash Khan, told a foreign news agency.

Khan further added that some potential suspects were being questioned.

Quetta city police chief Abdur Razzak Cheema said the victim, who was the daughter of a gardener working at an army facility, was found near a dump close to her home. She had been strangled with a rope, he said.

“There were a lot of bruises on the girl’s body that show that attempts were made to rape her,” he added.

The victim’s distraught parents were at a loss to understand the crime.

“We have no enmity with any one,” the girl’s mother told the news agency.

“On the day it happened, our daughter went to throw out rubbish close to the house but did not come back, I went out in search of her, but could not find her.“

A neighbour told Bibi her daughter was at the dump.

“She was already dead, with blood from her mouth and nose while her whole body bore bruises,” Bibi bemoaned.

The girl’s father, demanded the “beast” who killed his daughter be brought to justice.

“My daughter insisted I give her a ride on my motorbike in the morning before work, I didn’t realise this would be the last time I ever saw her,” he said.