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The family of a 10-year-old Pakistani girl who was abducted and murdered have said they were ignored by police when they tried to report her missing.
They say police told them the child might have eloped, and they were made to carry out errands for officers
Farishta vanished in Islamabad on 15 May and a body believed to be hers was found on 20 May.
Police are investigating if she was raped and tortured, and protests are being held to demand justice.
The individual police officers involved deny wrongdoing.
Hundreds protested in central Islamabad on Tuesday calling for justice.
The case has been compared to the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in January 2018 - which sparked outrage and protests across the country. Calls for action are being made on social media, under the hashtag #JusticeFor Farishta.
"The police didn't help us at all," Farishta's father Ghulam Nabi told the BBC at Tuesday's protest, which blocked a major intersection. "They would ask me to clean their office, to move their furniture, and to go get fruit for their Iftar [fast-breaking] dinner from the market.
"I was so distressed during those [four] days that I couldn't tell night from day."
On Wednesday, a case was formally registered against several police officials, alleging negligence. The chief of Shahzad Town police station, Muhammad Abbas Rana, has been suspended.
But he defended his and his officers' conduct, saying they had pursued the case and interviewed the family and neighbours on 16 May. He said the family were responsible for the delays in registering the case and that they did not follow it up properly. He denied they had been made to clean the police station.
Separately three people have been arrested in connection with Farishta's disappearance, Dawn newspaper reports.
A formal investigation was only launched on Sunday after a politician raised the case with the inspector general of Islamabad police.
The mutilated body of Farishta was found the following evening, triggering complaints that her life could have been saved had the police acted promptly.
Mr Nabi said that Mr Abbas Rana had initially refused to register a case - known as an FIR - telling him that his daughter might have "eloped with someone of her own free will". Mr Rana denied this.
They say police told them the child might have eloped, and they were made to carry out errands for officers
Farishta vanished in Islamabad on 15 May and a body believed to be hers was found on 20 May.
Police are investigating if she was raped and tortured, and protests are being held to demand justice.
The individual police officers involved deny wrongdoing.
Hundreds protested in central Islamabad on Tuesday calling for justice.
The case has been compared to the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in January 2018 - which sparked outrage and protests across the country. Calls for action are being made on social media, under the hashtag #JusticeFor Farishta.
"The police didn't help us at all," Farishta's father Ghulam Nabi told the BBC at Tuesday's protest, which blocked a major intersection. "They would ask me to clean their office, to move their furniture, and to go get fruit for their Iftar [fast-breaking] dinner from the market.
"I was so distressed during those [four] days that I couldn't tell night from day."
On Wednesday, a case was formally registered against several police officials, alleging negligence. The chief of Shahzad Town police station, Muhammad Abbas Rana, has been suspended.
But he defended his and his officers' conduct, saying they had pursued the case and interviewed the family and neighbours on 16 May. He said the family were responsible for the delays in registering the case and that they did not follow it up properly. He denied they had been made to clean the police station.
Separately three people have been arrested in connection with Farishta's disappearance, Dawn newspaper reports.
A formal investigation was only launched on Sunday after a politician raised the case with the inspector general of Islamabad police.
The mutilated body of Farishta was found the following evening, triggering complaints that her life could have been saved had the police acted promptly.
Mr Nabi said that Mr Abbas Rana had initially refused to register a case - known as an FIR - telling him that his daughter might have "eloped with someone of her own free will". Mr Rana denied this.
