KARACHI, Sept 26: A 13-year-old schoolgirl was kidnapped, sexually abused and smothered to death. Her body was found on the Seaview beach on Thursday morning.

A student of class-IV and the only child to her poor parents, the girl was taken away by a woman from her school in Azizabad on Sept 24 on the pretext that her mother had fallen ill. According to police, the woman was an acquaintance of the girl.

“We are investigating the case from three angles,” Karachi Central SSP Amir Farooqi said. First, he said, the woman reportedly wearing burqa must be familiar with the girl because she had told her that her mother was not feeling well.

Second, the girl’s father received a ransom call on his mobile phone and the caller demanded Rs1 million for her release. The SSP said the girl’s father who sold ice cream received no further call.

Third, the girl was sexually abused and this could be a possible motive behind her kidnapping and murder.

SSP Farooqi said Azizabad police had registered an FIR under sections 365-B (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel for marriage or sexual abuse, etc) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on Sept 24 on a complaint of the girl’s father.

Assistant sub-inspector of Darakhshan police station Mohammed Ramzan told Dawn that a passerby had informed the Seaview police post about the girl’s corpse on Thursday morning. The body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for post-mortem.

A senior medical officer said the girl had been subjected to “unnatural sexual offence” and death was caused by obstruction of air passage through her nose and mouth.

Citing an official report, Karachi South SSP Munir Shaikh said the girl had been sexually abused and smothered to death.

Inspector General of Sindh police Shahid Nadeem Baloch directed the AIG Karachi to ensure the arrest of culprits and submit a report in 24 hours. He also ordered police patrolling around the closure time of educational institutions.