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A Pakistani official says a man suspected in the rape and killing of a 7-year-old girl has been arrested in a breakthrough in a case that has stirred outrage across the country.

The child, Zainab Ansari, was brutally assaulted and her body was thrown in a garbage dump.

The government spokesman in Punjab province, Malik Ahmed Khan, said on Tuesday that the suspect, identified as Mohammed Imran, was arrested near the city of Kasur where Zainab was killed earlier this month.

Her killing exposed a string of child abductions and slayings by a suspected serial predator. It wasn't immediately clear whether the same suspect is linked to the deaths of eight other children.

Zainab's father, Mohammed Amin, demanded in an interview with a local television that the culprit be hanged.