Pakistan arrests suspect in Zainab's killing

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Pakistani police said Tuesday they had arrested a man suspected of raping and killing a six-year-old girl and dumping her body in a rubbish pile, in a case that outraged the country and prompted violent protests over police incompetence, and amid fears a serial killer was on the loose.

The suspect was identified as Imran Ali, 24. Police found his DNA matched evidence from the scene and Ali has since confessed to multiple murders, Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister for Pakistan's northeastern Punjab province told reporters in a news conference late Tuesday.

Six-year-old Zainab Ansari's body was found earlier this month in a rubbish pile in Kasur, near Punjab's provincial capital Lahore, four days after she was reported missing.

Pakistani Chief Minister of Punjab province Shahbaz Sharif (R) gives a press conference next to Ameen Ansari, the father of Zainab Fatima Ameen, 6, who was found raped and murdered, in Lahore on January 23, 2018. /VCG Photo‍

This was the 12th case of a child being raped and murdered within a two-kilometer radius in the last two years, according to media reports, raising fears a serial killer was at work in the area.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sharif said: "The killer of Zainab has been arrested, his name is Imran, he is 24 years old and a resident of Kasur, he is a serial killer."

He added that the authorities had conducted DNA testing of 1,150 people and Ali’s matched evidence from the crime scene “100 percent.”

The same DNA was also found on six of the other girls killed in Kasur in the past two years, according to medical officials.

Ali apparently lived close to Zainab’s family in Kasur. CCTV footage on the day Zainab disappeared showed her walking away with a man, holding his hand.

The little girl’s rape and murder sparked angry protests in Kasur, killing two people, while netizens and celebrities like Pakistani Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan took to social media to urge #JusticeforZainab.

Kasur was already the site of what has been dubbed Pakistan's largest child abuse scandal in 2015.

Hundreds of children in the district were abused, according to the authorities. Many police officials were later transferred out of the region for failing to investigate complaints of missing children.

(With input from agencies)

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