The girl's parents, who work as labourers, had reported her missing on January 24, when she failed to return home till late in the night. She was last seen playing with some children in the area.

For three days, there were no ransom calls and no clues. Then the police found a gunny bag behind the Government Senior Secondary School in Mukhbalpur village, Alipur. Inside, they found her mutilated body. Initially, the body was not identified.

But when the parents described all possible identification marks, the Alipur police concluded that she was the same girl who had been reported missing from Samaipur Badli. Doctors confirmed it later.

If the police were horrified when they saw the body, doctors atthe Subzi Mandi mortuary, where the post-mortem was conducted, were shocked after they compiled the report.

``She died due to excessive bleeding from her private parts. It seems she had been raped by three to four men,'' said a senior police official. ``The doctors have told us that her eyes had been gouged out after she died. And there were abrasion marks all over her body.''

The official added: ``In all these years, I have never investigated a murder executed with such brutality. We have to bring the culprits to book.''

But so far, the police haven't found any clues to the assailants.