Dadu police on Saturday arrested the parents of a 10-year-old girl as well as two other accused amid reports that they had allegedly stoned the girl to death.

According to police, the incident occured on the night between November 21 and 22 in the Kirthar mountain range of Dadu district, which borders the Balochistan province.

Following information that a girl had been stoned to death, SSP Dadu Dr Farrukh Raza directed police from Wahi Pandhi — an area in Johi taluka of the district — to gather information about the incident. Wahi Pandhi police first picked up a maulvi who led the police to the house of the girl's parents.

“We are further verifying facts but we have arrested the deceased girl's parents and a maulvi who had led the funeral prayer, as well as another man who had facilitated her burial,” said SSP Raza. He said that all four are being interrogated.

Meanwhile, police have lodged a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Ghulam Qadir Gopang under Sections 302, 201, 120-B of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Quoting the girl’s parents, the SSP said that the girl had died "accidentally due to landsliding on the mountain". The parents were living in an area called Shahi Makaan.

According to the FIR, the girl’s father, his relative, and four others had "hatched a conspiracy for the murder of the girl and killed her by stone pelting". They then bought a shroud and buried her near Lak graveyard.

“We need to verify the facts because there are various claims as to the nature of her death, including stoning carried out by unidentified persons," said SSP Raza.

PPP's Saleh Shah Jillani, a Sindh Assembly member from Wahi Pandhi, when questioned about the incident, said: “Yes. [It happened] in my constituency but I am waiting for police to share some details of the incident as I have only seen it on Facebook."

DIG Naeem Shaikh claimed that an application would be filed in the concerned magistrate’s court to seek remand of the suspects as well as permission for the body’s exhumation. “After exhumation, an autopsy will be conducted which will determine the cause of her death,” said DIG Shaikh.

The girl’s family is said to hail from Balochistan but they keep travelling between Sindh and Balochistan through the hilly terrain of Kirthar, which police said was difficult to traverse.