The perpetrator in the killing of a 10-year-old girl from Hsinthaepyin village in Buthidaung Township, Arakan State, has been arrested, the Arakan People’s Authority said in a statement on February 7.

The alleged murderer has been identified as 65-year-old Adu Salam, a fellow resident of Hsinthaepyin, a Muslim village in northern Arakan State. He was arrested at around 10 p.m. on January 31 and is being held in custody for the crimes of “murder and robbery”, according to a statement issued by the Arakan People’s Authority.

The Arakan People’s Authority, a quasi-governmental body under the auspices of the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA), interrogated three people who were collecting firewood together with the victim, and arrested the alleged killer based on eyewitness accounts, it said.

“My daughter is dead and there is nothing I can do. I would like to ask the public authorities to take action against the perpetrator,” said U Ma Mat Lin, the victim’s father.

The victim was previously identified as Ma Zar Nul Kar. She went missing while playing outside the village on the morning of January 28, with the Muslim girl’s body found in a field east of the village at around 6 p.m. on the day of her disappearance.

Adu Salam confessed to strangling the child, removing a pair of gold earrings she was wearing, moving her body to the field where it was found, and covering it with sticks, according to the Arakan People’s Authority statement.