ISLAMABAD – Kiran Naz, a news person at Saama TV, has earned internationalfame and praise as she has protested the brutal rape and murder of a7-year-old girl in Pakistan by bringing her daughter to the news broadcast.
Holding her daughter in her lap, Ms. Naz opened the channel’s news bulletinsaying that she is not Kiran Naz today, but a mother. She went on to blamethe government’s inefficiency for the incident and called it a murder ofhumanity.
The girl in Kasur district of Punjab province was abducted last weekoutside her home. Her body was found in a rubbish dump on Tuesday. She hadgone to a religious tuition centre near her house in Kasur city, some 50 kmfrom Lahore, on January 5 from where a man said to be a ‘serial killer’abducted her, police said.
“A serial killer seems to be behind this incident. That serial killer mayhave been involved in other eight such cases in Kasur,” senior policeofficer Zulfiqar Hameed said.
The distraught father of the victim has blamed the “callous attitude” ofpolice as the government roped in military intelligence and the ISI toprobe the horrific incident that shocked the country.
The child’s parents were in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and she had beenliving with a maternal aunt.
According to a preliminary post-mortem report, the girl was raped multipletimes before being strangled to death. There were visible marks of tortureon her face, congestion in her muscles.
The horrific incident triggered public outage throughout the country withpeople demanding justice for the child. The protests continued for thesecond day.
The protesters attacked the out house of a ruling PMLN legislator in Kasurand set ablaze his two cars. They also ransacked a district hospital inKasur.
In Lahore, angry demonstrators blocked Ferozpur Road suspending the metrobus service. In Rawalpindi, traffic remained suspended for several hours asprotesters demanded justice for her.
Police opened fire at the protesters that left two people dead.
‘No faith in Punjab police’
“My daughter could have been saved had police acted when she was abductedon January 5,” Muhammad Amin told reporters. He said he had no faith inPunjab police to trace the killers of his daughter.
“Police was quick to open fire on the people seeking justice for mydaughter but showed it’s routine callous attitude to trace her when she hadgone missing,” he said. “I have appealed to the army chief and the chiefjustice of Pakistan to give me justice as I have no faith in Punjabgovernment and police,” he said.
The chief justice has taken suo motu notice of the incident while the armychief ordered the ISI and military intelligence to help police trace thegirl’s killers.
Geo News published the last poem written by her on January 4 before she waskidnapped.
Meanwhile, Punjab government announced 10 million Pakistani rupees rewardfor providing information of the killers. “We have registered a murder caseagainst four policemen involved in the killing of two protesters,” thepolice said.
According to a NGO Sahil, every day more than 11 children under the age of18 fall prey to sexual abuse in Punjab province of Pakistan.
Last year 4,139 incidents of child abuse took place in the province where43 per cent of victims knew the perpetrators.