GUJRAT: The suspect, who was arrested for rape and murder of a minor girl of Khohaar village in Sara-i-Alamgir Saddar police, was allegedly shot dead by unidentified person(s) after he `escaped from police custody` early on Friday.

According to the police, the handcuffed suspect, Nadeem Jutt, was being driven to Khohaar village for recovery of evidence by a team of Sara-i-Alamgir police, when he allegedly jumped out of the police van and escaped.

As per the police report, early on Friday, a police party patrolling the area heard gunshots near Boley bridge in the precincts of Gujrat city`s Civil Lines police.

The report said that on searching the area, the patrolling team found a critically injured man lying there, who was immediately shifted to the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH). The injured suspect later succumbed to the bullet wounds, it added.

He was later identified as Nadeem, the flee-ing suspect, the police said.

Earlier, the suspect`s DNAsampleshadmatched with the swabs taken from the body of the five-yearold victim, Zahra.

The police lodged a case against the suspect under sections 223, 186 and 353 of the Pakistan PenalCodeonthereport of a Sara-i-Alamgir police official, Iftikhar Ahmed. The Civil Lines police later also registered a murder case against the unidentified suspect(s) who shot dead Nadeeem under section 302 of the PPC on the report of Assistant Sub Inspector Fiaz, in charge of Green Town police picket of the city.

The minor daughter of an expatriate Pakistani had been kidnapped and was later found dead on Jan 5. The autopsy revealed that the girl was killed after being brutally raped.

Gujrat police on Thursday claimed to have arrested the suspect, Nadeem, after his DNA samples matched with specimens of the deceased girl during forensic analysis conducted at the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) lab in Lahore.