BUREWALA – The police claimed to have arrested the teenage maternal uncle of two minor girls strangulated to death after rape on Friday.

Addressing a press conference here, Vehari DPO Akhtar Farooq said that the incident took place in Basti Chamanabad, Mauza Jhoni of Tehsil Mailsi where accused 17-year-old Muhammad Azhar raped 7-year-old Sania, daughter of Abdul Ghaffar after abduction along with her six-year-old cousin Fauzia, daughter of Ghulam Abbas.

According to the DPO, the 17-year-old accused, resident of the same area, had confessed to his crime before police in a video statement. The police have also recovered the accused clothes and mufflers who he thrown in the fields to hide his crime.

The accused had strangled both the girls with his hands after he raped seven-year-old Sania to hide his crime. The cotton swabs of the bodies has been sent them to Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory Lahore for examination but preliminary post-mortem report suggested rape with seven-year-old Sania. Teh DPO informed.

Both unfortunate girls left home for a local mosque on Thursday afternoon and when they did not return, their families informed the local police about the disappearance of the girls.

However, bodies of the missing girls were recovered from maize crop fields in the morning on Friday. Their postmortem report proved that the two girls were strangled to death after rape.

The police, over suspicion, arrested Azhar, a paternal uncle of the slain girls who confessed to the crime. The slain girls were laid to rest at native graveyard amid tears.

A case was registered against the culprit at the Mailsi Saddr police station and investigation is underway.