PESHAWAR: Police on Friday arrested seven more suspects in Zainab rape-slay case in Charsadda.

This has climbed the number of suspects in police custody to 15 as eight other suspects were arrested a day earlier. Police began interrogation from all the suspects and continued search operation in the area. They did not receive DNA result of the girl yet.

A team supervised by Superintendent Police (Investigation) Darwesh Khan is conducting investigation in the case. Police officials said that they found hair sample of the suspect from the site of the incident.

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The minor girl was abducted from her house on Oct 6. Police said body of the two and a half years old girl was found from a field. They said the girl was allegedly stabbed to death after sexual assault. Administration of a local hospital after postmortem confirmed that the girl’s body bore torture marks.

An FIR has been lodged at a police station and hunt for the suspects is still on.

Police said Zainab was playing outside her house when unidentified persons abducted her. A police official said that the body was shifted to Khyber Medical University for forensic analysis to find out if the girl was physically abused or not. For this purpose, DNA samples would be obtained from her body, he said.

The incident has spread panic among the residents of the area.

Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has taken notice of the incident. He has directed the KP inspector general of police and other officials to immediately arrest the culprits and give them an exemplary punishment.

“It is a heart-wrenching and inhuman incident. The affected family will be provided complete justice and those embroiled in this will not be able to escape,” he said.