An 11-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped and murdered before her body was thrown in a deserted area in Sohrab Goth locality of Karachi, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Malir Rao Anwar said on Monday.

Anwar said that though the body was found from Ayub Goth, in the vicinity of Sohrab Goth police station, the victim was assaulted and murdered somewhere else.

Dr Rohina Hassan, the additional police surgeon of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital — where the corpse was shifted for post-mortem examination — told Dawn that the girl had been subjected to sexual assault and was strangled to death.

She added that there were signs of decomposition of the body which indicate that the girl was killed several hours before her body was found by the police.

The police have not been able to identify the girl so far and are trying to locate her family.