More than four months have passed since three-year-old Kulsoom was found dead in Karachi, and the police investigation into her killing has produced no arrest, charge or DNA result that has been publicly announced. The case, which drew angry promises of swift justice from the Sindh government in June, has gone quiet in public, even as other child murder cases in Punjab and Karachi have moved to arrests within days.

Kulsoom, the daughter of Muhammad Qasim, went out to play near her home in Landhi Town's Quaidabad neighbourhood on the afternoon of Tuesday, 23 June. When she did not return, her family and neighbours searched the area. That evening, her body was found inside a flour sack left near the family's home. Police took the body to hospital, where a post-mortem examination was carried out. Officials said the preliminary findings suggested sexual assault, and investigators collected forensic samples and other evidence from the scene.

A case was registered at the Quaidabad police station on her father's complaint, under sections covering kidnapping, torture and murder. The reaction from the provincial government was immediate. Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar directed the District Malir police chief to submit a detailed report and to ensure the swift arrest of those involved, ordering the use of modern forensic techniques and the formation of special teams. Sindh police chief Javed Alam Odho formed a high-level investigation committee headed by the East Zone police chief, drawing officers from the Investigation Unit, the Malir police and the Special Branch, and ordered it to report its progress to him daily.

In the days that followed, police reported that forensic evidence had been recovered. Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said DNA samples were taken from 12 suspects in the area, some of them close relatives of the child, and that the investigation was focusing on three suspects, all of them close relatives. Hair samples and other DNA evidence recovered from the victim's clothing and body were preserved for forensic analysis, and the samples were sent to the laboratory at the University of Karachi. Police sources said marks of resistance had been found on the child's body, that several suspects had been detained so blood and other samples could be compared with the forensic evidence, and that investigators were examining whether more than one person was involved and whether someone known to the child had taken part.

Since that flurry of activity in late June, nothing further has been publicly reported about the case. No suspect has been publicly named, no one has been publicly charged, and no DNA result has been announced. Searches of major news outlets turn up no later reporting on the investigation, leaving the family and the wider public without an answer to the question the police themselves raised in June: whose DNA was on the evidence, and what did the laboratory find?

The silence stands in contrast to other recent cases. In Kasur, police arrested a suspect within days of the body of 11-year-old Faizan being found on 2 November in Mouza Hussain Khanwala. The suspect, a local resident named Mubashir, was questioned and, according to police, confessed during interrogation. He remains in custody while the investigation continues. In Karachi's Qayyumabad area, police arrested a close relative after a one-and-a-half-year-old girl died in hospital following an alleged sexual assault. In both cases, an arrest followed quickly and was announced.

None of that means the Kulsoom investigation has stopped. Police inquiries can continue for months without public announcements, and forensic testing can take time. But the people detained in June have not been publicly charged, and until a charge is brought, no one stands accused in court. The case remains open, the family is still waiting, and the promises made in June — a detailed report, daily progress updates and the swiftest possible arrest — have not yet produced a publicly visible result. For a family that lost a three-year-old child, and for a city that watched the case unfold, the wait for an answer continues.