MANSEHRA: The police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested an Afghan national accused of brutally murdering an eight-year-old boy and dumping parts of his body in different locations in the Ichrian area here.

“This blind murder of a child, who had arrived from Karachi with her mother to visit relatives, was a major challenge for us to solve. Our special team has successfully arrested the assailant,” district police officer Shafiullah Khan Gandapur told a presser here.

He said that on July 22, police received a report that the headless body of a child had been found in Ichrian area.

“Given the sensitive nature of this murder, DIG Hazara Nasir Mehmood Satti took immediate notice and directed an urgent operation to recover the missing head and arrest the culprit,” Mr Gandapur added.

A special investigation team led by SP Roshan Jehangir and SP investigations Sheraz Khan arrested the suspect, who was identified as Najeebullah, an Afghan national who, during preliminay interrogation, confessed to the crime.

“As this case is extremely sensitive, we are not disclosing the details of the preliminary investigation to the media at this stage,” the DPO said.

He added that modern investigative tools and techniques were employed to trace and solve the case, ultimately leading to the main suspect’s arrest.

“We still need to establish the motive behind this brutal murder, why such an innocent child was killed horrifically,” he said.

He said the search for the child’s missing head was underway, with the help of sniffer dogs, in Ichrian and surrounding localities where the lower part of the body was recovered.