The spectre of a Kathua-like horror has gripped Gujarat’s Surat following the recovery of an 11-year-old girl’s body with as many as 86 wounds on her body.

The mutilated body, yet to be identified, was found in the bushes behind an open ground in Surat’s Bhestan area about a week ago.

The post-mortem report disclosed that she was raped and tortured for more than a week before being strangled to death.

Civil hospital sources in Surat revealed that 86 injuries on the girl’s body included several wounds on her private parts.

The Surat police have not been able to establish the identity of the girl in more than a week after the discovery of her body. The murdered girl’s attributes are being compared with profiles of the missing persons registered in the district and neighbouring areas.

While the police had earlier said that a body of a girl had been found, details of the case were made public today with Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma holding a press conference.

No one has come forward with any clue yet despite the police announcing a reward of Rs 20,000 for any tips leading to identification of the body and/or arrest of the culprits.

The police have registered a case against unidentified persons under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Indian Penal Code.

PTI quoted Dr Ganesh Govekar, a doctor at the City Civil Hospital where the autopsy was conducted, as saying “Going by the nature of injuries, they seem to have been caused over a period ranging from one week to a day prior to the recovery of the body, suggesting that the girl, who is between nine to 11 years of age, might have been held captive, tortured and possibly raped.”

Police were first alerted by a Pandesara resident whose wife and a neighbour had spotted the body in the bushes during their morning walk on 6 April. A case of accidental death was registered initially but it was changed after the post mortem report revealed rape and torture with 86 wounds.

The police commissioner said the investigation has been handed over to the city police’s Crime Branch and all efforts are being made to identify the girl. “We need to identify the girl to solve the case. We are focusing on Odisha and West Bengal, as she is likely to be from either of the two states,” he said, adding that so far police have scanned data of 8,000 missing children.

Coming as it did when the heat and dust raised by the rapes and murder in Kathua and Unnao are yet to settle, the incident has shaken the conscience of people here.