DADU: A seven-year-old girl was bludgeoned and repeatedly stabbed until she died by a suspect, who was caught by her stepfather while the victim was almost buried in a graveyard in Mehar town on Tuesday.

According to the A-Section police of Mehar, Jinsar Nonari, alongwith abeggar,NaikMohammad Panhwar, was arrested for brutally killing the girl and trying to bury her body to conceal the criminal act.

Initial inquiry into the incident suggested that the girl, Azmat Soomro, daughter of Liaquat Soomro, was abducted by Jinsar from the shrine of Syed Hajjan Shah. He started hitting her with stones and other hard and blunt objects before repeated stabbing her. The suspectthentookhertothegraveyard,situatednextto the shrine, with intention to bury her after ensuring that she had died.

Her stepfather, Dilshad, claimed that he had rushed to the rescue of Azmat upon hearing her screams and caught Jinsar red-handed while trying to bury her. He claimed that Azmat was almost buried when he reached the grave prepared by Jinsar.

Meanwhile, upon coming to know about the horrific incident, Azmat`s family members, their relatives and residents of their neighbourhood took to the street and held a protest demonstration at the nearby section of the Indus Highway. Vehicular traffic on the road remained suspended during the course of the protest.

The stepfather also claimed that he immediately informed Azmat`s mother, Naziran Soomro, about the tragic incident and that she rushed to the specified spot.

SHO Mohsin Jamali and a senior police officer, Shafiq Narejo, of the A-Section police station proceeded to the grave and took the body into their custody for a postmortem examination at the Mehar Taluka Hospital.

They could not guess the actual motive for the brutal murder of the minor girl but suspected that she might have been subjected to criminal assault and to conceal this act, the suspect apparently murdered her and tried to secretly bury her in the nearby graveyard. They did not disclose the suspected role of the arrested beggar, Naik Mohammad Panhwar, in the crime.

Reacting to the horrific incident, Sindh United Party (SUP) District President Sikandar Soomro, along with other party colleagues, including Akbar Soomro and Ikhtiar Soomro, held a protest rally in the town. The victim`s father, Liaquat Soomro, led the rally which culminated near a rice mill located near the venue of the bereaved family`s protest demonstration. The protesters demanded a thorough investigation into the incident and justice to the bereaved family.