The body of a one-year-old girl, Maryam, was recovered from a sewerage line in Rawalpindi’s Ratta Amral area on Thursday. Police have arrested a 10-year-old boy, identified as Azan Sultan, a close relative living in the same household, in connection with the murder.
Maryam was spotted the last time playing outdoors near her house in Mohalla Qazian with other children in the neighborhood before she disappeared. Her family organized a search and, failing to find her. Her grandmother, Musarat Bibi, filed a missing persons report at the local police station.
The next day, the body of the child was found in Dhoke Ratta’s main sewerage line. The authorities moved the body to District Headquarters Hospital to perform a postmortem. The accused boy was later revealed by CCTV footage taking the girl away from the street.
The minor also confessed during interrogation that he had dipped the child’s head in sewer water, and she died. He is said to have uttered, “I didn’t like her.” The accused has now been sent to the custody of the child protection bureau by a local court.
Maryam’s father is employed with the cantonment board. The accused teenager is said to belong to a problematic family, where his father is an addict and is often away from home.
