Police in Pakistan say they have arrested two teenagers suspected in the murder of a four-year-old girl last month, which set off protests across the country.

Silahuddin Mehsud, police chief in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Wednesday the suspects confessed to trying to sexually assault the girl in a sugarcane field and then strangling her to death when she cried out. He said one of the suspects was a relative of the victim.

Pakistan has seen a wave of protests in recent weeks over alleged police negligence. The demonstrations were ignited by the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in the city of Kasur, whose body was found on a trash heap. Police have arrested an alleged serial killer believed to have killed her and seven other children.