UMERKOT, Dec 3. A six-year-old girl was reportedly sexually assaulted and thrown at a desolate place in unconscious condition in the town of Ghulam Nabi Shah in Umerkot district on Sunday.

A resident of the town, Manohar Meghwar, told Dawn on Sunday that his six-year-old daughter, was playing near the house when she went missing after a while.

During a search for her, she was found lying in a pool of blood near the bungalow of a former taluka nazim of Pithoro. The victim was taken to the District Hospital Umerkot but no doctor was available at night. She was then rushed to the Civil Hospital Mirpurkhas.

The local Meghwar community appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and representatives of minorities for immediate arrest of the culprits and award of exemplary punishment to them.

Umerkot DSP Manzoor Khoso told Dawn that a team of senior police officials traced the footprints of a number of persons and sniffer dogs had also been used to catch the culprits.

An FIR of the incident was not registered till the filing of the report on Monday evening.

Our staff correspondent in Hyderabad adds: Relatives of the victim girl staged a demonstration outside the local press club on Monday demanding arrest of the culprits and provision of proper treatment to the victim girl.

Carrying banners and placards outside the local press club on Monday, they shouted slogans against the culprits and police.

Leading the protest, the girl’s relatives, Santosh Kumar and Dilip Kumar, said police had failed to arrest anyone involved in the incident.

They said she was not being taken care of properly in the civil hospital and demanded medical facilities for her.

They said father of the victim was a poor labourer and had no enmity with anyone and urged the chief justice to take a suo motu action against people involved in the crime.