BATKEN, Kyrgyzstan – Police in southern Kyrgyzstan have arrested three men in connection with the brutal killing of a 14-year-old girl that sparked outrage in the Central Asian country.
Police said the body of the teenager was dumped inside a small tunnel, with both her hands tied behind her back and her neck showing signs of strangulation with a rope. The body was discovered by a passerby in the girl’s native district of Kadamjai in Batken Province on September 5.
The three suspects -- local men in their 20s -- were detained on September 6, police said. During a search, police also seized a car belonging to one of the suspects that contained possible evidence of the crime, they added.
A daughter of migrant laborers working in Russia, the victim lived with her grandparents in a village in Kadamjai. With thousands of families in remittances-dependent Kyrgyzstan having to leave their children with grandparents, the attack on the minor hit hard across the country.
President Sadyr Japarov condemned the attack and said he has taken the case under his direct control.
