ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: A day after Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Abdul Hameed Dogar took suo motu notice of the rape-cum-murder of an eight-year-old Afghan girl in the capital, the local police on Tuesday announced that they had arrested the child’s killer.

The chief justice on Monday directed Inspector General of Police (IGP) Qalbe Abbas to personally probe the matter and depute a senior superintendent of police to submit an investigation report to the court on Thursday.

The police claimed that during preliminary interrogation, the accused confessed that he raped the victim and then murdered her in order to conceal the crime.

He also admitted that he put the body in a sack and threw it into a stream (nullah) at Dhoke Paracha near Kashmir Highway.

The incident came to light on January 7 when some passers-by informed the police about the presence of a mutilated body in the nullah. Later the girl was identified as Hatma Bibi, a resident of Chalo village located in Sector G-14. She had been missing for a little less than two months.

Hatma Bibi’s father, Abdul Malik, a labourer at Sabzi Mandi, had lodged a complaint with the Golra police, stating that his daughter left the house to buy milk from a nearby cattle pen on November 21 but did not return.

Meanwhile, a team constituted by SSP, headed by SP west and SP investigation, during interrogation of the workers at the pen came to know that a man had left the job three days after the incident.

Suspecting foul play, the police started a search for the man and succeeded in arresting him from his sister’s house in a rural area of Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the Golra police also busted two gangs of criminals and arrested five people allegedly involved in robberies and thefts.

The police also recovered stolen property worth Rs312,000, including TV, audio system, two pistols and a dagger.

The police registered separate cases against the accused and started investigations.