Pakistanis protest because of seven-year-old girl’s murder
Karachi(KNA): Scores of demonstrators continued to protest the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in the central Pakistani town of Kasur. Protesters blocked the main roads into the city, about 50km south of the eastern city of Lahore, using tractors and large cement blocks, and shouted slogans against the government on Thursday.
They called for "justice for Zainab", the name of the child whose body was found in a rubbish dump on Wednesday after being missing for four days. Closed-circuit television footage showed her being led down a street near her home by an unidentified man.
On Thursday, police told they were still investigating leads, after interrogating 227 people in connection with the case.
The rape and murder of Zainab Ansari was the 12th such case in Kasur district in the last year, according to local media reports.
In the first half of 2017, at least 1,764 cases of child abuse were reported across Pakistan, according to the non-profit Sahil child protection organisation. At least 65 percent of those occurred in Punjab province, where Kasur is situated.
Zainab's father asserted that he had seen many political leaders visit him as the case of his child's murder became more prominent, but that not enough was being done to prevent such crimes from occurring.
On Wednesday, two men were killed when police opened fire on a massive protest against Zainab's killing.
Kashif Imran, the brother of a deceased protester, told his brother was an innocent bystander.
"He told us he was going out to see if the store was open, and then went along with the procession on the road where the police opened fire," said Imran.
In 2015, more than 200 children were targeted by a criminal gang operating a paedophilia ring in the village of Hussain Khanwala, about 10km south of Kasur.
The children were sexually exploited and recorded on video, with footage being sold and used to blackmail their families, according to a fact-finding report by the Human Rights Commission Pakistan.
At least a dozen suspects were arrested in connection with that ring, with two convicted so far.
Some children who were victims of the ring have recently spoken to local media of their trauma, and the social alienation they have felt since they were identified as sexual abuse victims.
Source: Al Jazeera