New footage may offer lead in minor's rape, murder in Pakistan

Police on Saturday released new CCTV footage of a person suspected to be involved in the kidnapping, rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab in Pakistan.

Dawn newspaper reported that the footage showed a bearded man bearing a resemblance to the abductor walking through a street where Zainab's house is situated in Kasur city of Punjab province.

The man is seen wearing a dark coloured cap and what looks like grey salwar kameez and a brown jacket.

Police, however, have said that the man is only a "person of interest" as of now.

On January 4, Zainab had left her house to go to her maternal aunt's nearby and is believed to have been abducted en route. On January 9, five days after she went missing, labourers found her body from a trash pile.

The new video will help police make headway in the case as it is clearer compared to an earlier footage, police say.

On Friday, police said that the results of DNA tests indicated the involvement of a culprit who is a suspect in at least seven similar cases that took place in the district over the past year, making him a serial killer.

A source in the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) told Dawn that the agency had received samples collected by Kasur police from the crime scene.

The samples were processed at the PFSA's DNA and Serology section where experts confirmed that the suspect had been involved in several similar crimes in the city.

The source explained that the agency had conducted tests of samples obtained from victims in seven similar cases from Kasur, and, according to available records, the results indicated involvement of the same person.

The Inspector General of Punjab Police had earlier told reporters that a Joint Investigation Team set up to probe the case had received the DNA test results and investigations were underway.

--IANS

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