KARACHI - Police found a strangulated body of a teenaged girl from the outskirts of the city on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old girl, resident of Khawaja Ajmer Nagri, was found lying dead on a plot in Sector 4-D in Surjani Town.

“Locals saw the body and informed police,” said Surjani police station DSP Sohrab Meo, and added that police rushed to the spot and shifted the body to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for autopsy.

“The victim had gone missing on Tuesday afternoon while returning from a beauty parlour where she would apply Mehndi on customers’ hands,” the officer explained. He further said that family of the slain girl reported to Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police station when she did not return home in the evening, but both police and her family failed to trace her whereabouts.

The officer, while quoting the initial investigation, said that the girl was apparently strangled to death with her own dupatta, which was also found from the crime scene.

DSP Meo speculated that it seemed that the girl was killed apparently on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Police was able to identify the girl with the help of her cell phone spotted beside her body,” he said, and added, “Later police informed the girl’s family about her fate.”  The family, however, told the police that they did not doubt anyone; however, police suspects that any relative or neighbourer of the girl is likely to be behind the incident.

Police Surgeon Dr Aijaz Ahmed Khokhar confirmed that the girl was raped before being strangulated to death with the help of her dupatta.

He said that samples had been collected for dispatching these to the laboratory to ascertain that either the girl was subjected to rape only or was gang raped. He said that the report would take at least a week. Body of the victim was later handed over to the family.

The police said it had yet to register the case owing to the shock the death had given to the family and because it later got engaged in her burial.  “Now the case will be registered when the girl’s family will approach us,” the officer said.

Police investigators have launched hunt for the perpetrators of the crime.

However, they were unable to trace them till the filing of this story.

DSP Meo said that police was trying its best to arrest the culprits.

Its worth mentioning here that a similar incident had occurred near Korangi few days ago, where the culprits had thrown a seven-year-old girl, believing her to be dead, but she managed to survive and remains under treatment.

Despite the tall claims made by police, it has yet to make any headway even in the previous case.