Crimes against children and Justice for Zainab

Zainab, a 7 year old girl was allegedly kidnapped on January 4 as she left her house in Kasur, Pakistan Punjab, for her maternal aunt’s house located a few minutes away. She was last seen in a CCTV footage walking hand in hand with an unknown man. On Jan 9, five days after she had disappeared, labourers found her dead body in a trash pile.

11 similar cases in Kasur since January 2017

There have been 11 similar cases in the city of Kasur in Punjab, Pakistan, since January 2017 and Zainab was the 12^th girl to face the same tragic fate. Investigators have recovered traces of the same DNA on six of the victims, including from Zainab’s body. All six were young girls, all went missing extremely close to their homes, and all were left, raped and killed to be found in rubbish dumps or abandoned houses nearby. Their families all live within a 3 km radius.

Violent protests in Kasur spread across Pakistan

The anger in Kasur surfaced after the Incident and people came to the streets protesting against police inertia. The demonstrations turned violent and the police responded by opening fire, killing 2 peaceful demonstrators. “This is how justice is provided to the justice seekers,” Lahore child rights activist Iftikhar Mubarak said.”We will keep searching for justice, no matter what may come”.

Shehbaz Sharif, a younger brother of the former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, is Chief Minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province. The people are highly critical of the ruling government’s role in failing to prevent these crimes. In 2015 a gang was involved in child abuse for porn in Kasur but was never brought to justice.