The body of an Afghan girl was found in the sprawling sugarcane farms on the outskirts of the Khazana area of Lower Dir District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan on Wednesday, local media reported.

Initial reports suggest the six-year-old girl was raped before dying, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The six-year-old had been reported missing by her relatives on Tuesday evening – a disappearance that coincided with her mother’s visit to her relatives, according to Superintendent of Police (SP) Zafer Khan.

Although the family promptly alerted the authorities and an FIR was filed to initiate the search operation, the girl was not found until about 12 hours after she was reported missing. 

The child’s uncle, Faqir Muhammad, said the deceased’s father is a daily wage earner. He is reportedly unaware of the loss, which according to her relatives has compounded economic concerns for the family.

This is the second incident of an Afghan child’s body being found in the province in the past 24 hours. The body of an eight-year-old Afghan boy was found in the vicinity of Karak District of the province on Tuesday.

The motive behind the killing of the boy was not immediately apparent.

The authorities have initiated a probe into the deaths of Afghan children, the newspaper said.