Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested a suspect who reportedly sexually abused a three-and-a-half-year-old girl in Bahar Colony area of Rawalpindi.

Saddar police station SHO Malik Rifaqat told DawnNews that the suspect had been arrested and a case over charges of attempted rape was also filed on the complaint of the victim's family.

The victim's father informed DawnNews that his daughter told her mother that the suspect, a shopkeeper, had molested her. The parents took their minor girl to a doctor because she was bleeding, and subsequently approached the police after the doctor confirmed that she had been abused.

The police filed a case and arrested the suspect, following which the medical examinations of the suspect and the girl were conducted, said Rifaqat.

The case surfaced days after Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a press conference formally announced the arrest of a key suspect in the rape and murder case of six-year-old Zainab Amin.

Zainab's suspected murderer and rapist is a 23-year-old man who is said to be a serial killer based in Kasur. He has been held accused of raping and murdering 6-7 girls over the course of two years.