KARACHI: A seven-year-old girl going to school in a car driven by her father was hit by a bullet and died near Nagan Chowrangi on Thursday morning, police said.

They said that the tragic incident occurred during an exchange of gunfire between a security guard and robbers.

Quoting her father`s statement, Taimuria police officer Ghulam Murtaza told Dawn that Maryam and her father, Saqib, left their home in a car and travelled some distance. As they reached near a shopping centre at around 7:12am and slowed down a bit because of a speed breaker, the father heard Maryam crying `Baba`.

He saw her bleeding and realised that she had been shot. He rushed to a nearby hospital and later on to Ziauddin Hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival.

The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital to fulfil medico-legal formalities.

Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed said the relatives ofthe victim took away the body without a post-mortem examination. However, the body was brought back by police and the post-mortem were held. She had suffered a firearm wound in the head, said Dr Syed.

The police officer said that two spent bullet casings fired from a separate pistols had been recovered from the spot.

Giving details of the shootout, he said that a security guard and robbers exchanged gunfire when the girl`s car was passing through the locality.

As the victim`s father refused to lodge an FIR, the police registered a case against the detained guard on behalf of the state under Section 319 (manslaughter) of the Pakistan Penal Code and initiated an investigation.

Later, the police took into custody security guard Ali Raza.

In the evening, a police spokesperson claimed that the forensic report confirmed that the bullet that killed the girl was fired by the security guard.

The held guard told the police that he was employed at a restaurant within the remit of the Shahrah-i-Noor Jahan police station where he opened fire on two robbers.

During the firing, the suspects escaped but one of the bullets hit the girl, who was going in a car on the opposite side of the road near Haroon Shopping Centre within the jurisdiction of the Taimuria police station.

The police seized the weapon of the guard, a .223bore rifle, and recovered a spent bullet casing and another bullet fired at the car, which had been sent to the forensic science lab.

Central SSP Faisal Abdullah Chachar told the media that onearmed man was seen running behind a person. He said the father told the police that they were going on the road while the robbery incident took place on the other side of the road.

A four-member committee led byGulberg SP has been formed for investigation of the case.

Meanwhile, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori took notice of the incident and sought a detailed report from Additional IGP of Karachi.