Cops question suspect in killings of 8 Pakistani kids

Protests in Pakistan after 8-year-old's murder

LAHORE, Pakistan -- A Pakistani court has given police two weeks to interrogate a suspect arrested in the brutal killings of eight children in the eastern city of Kasur.

Ahsanullah Chauhan, a police investigator, says the suspect, Mohammad Imran, was presented before a judge in Lahore on Wednesday, amid tight security.

Imran's arrest came two weeks after 7-year-old Zainab Ansari was assaulted and her body thrown in a garbage dump early this month. He is suspected in her death and in those of at least seven other children.

Members of Civil Society light candles and earthen lamps to condemn the rape and murder of 7-year-old girl Zainab Ansari in Kasur, during a candlelight vigil in Islamabad, Pakistan, Jan. 11, 2018. REUTERS

Zainab's death stirred outrage across the country and brought to light the other abductions and slayings by a suspected serial predator.

Police said on Tuesday that Imran had confessed to the murders.

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted Wednesday she was "heartbroken" about Zainab's tragic fate and demanded action against the killer.

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