Nine-year-old rape victim’s body found;teenage girl killed by father

Karachi

Fifteen days after she was reported missing and police did nothing for her recovery, the body of a nine-year-old girl, who doctors confirmed was raped before being murdered, was found dumped in the Docks police limits on Monday.

The victim was identified as nine-year-old Roma, a resident of Machhar Colony. According to her family, who staged a protest on Mauripur Road yesterday, Roma had been abducted from near her house on July 15.

With police displaying customary apathy, the girl was never recovered and her body was found dumped along the Lyari River.

Once it was moved to the Civil Hospital, a MLO who conducted the autopsy confirmed that the minor had been subjected to sexual assault before her throat was slit. As per the MLO’s report, Roma had been murdered around 15 days ago, a timeframe corresponding with her abduction.

This abhorrent rape and murder came just two weeks after the decomposing body of a young girl, who was said to be not more than 12 years old, was found packed in a bag dumped in Ghazi Goth, within the limits of Manghopir police station. The MLO who handled the case had confirmed that she had been raped then strangulated, and the body was at least a month old.

On June 7, a five-year-old girl was admitted to a hospital in critical condition after she was raped in Orangi Town’s Sector L. A case (34/376) was registered at the Iqbal Market police station by the girl’s father, Yousuf. Sexual offence was confirmed by a medico-legal officer at the CHK, Samia Saeed, in her medical examination of the young girl.

According to Iqbal Market SHO, Yousuf came to the police station and told the officials that his five-year-old daughter was found lying unconscious near his house in Orangi Town. He said the girl had been standing outside her house when a couple of unidentified men riding a motorcycle picked her up. The girl was found lying near her house after about six hours. 

Rape and sexual assaults remain a widespread problem in Pakistan, as apathetic or incompetent officials have made it a norm for investigations into incidents of gender-based violence to be mired in controversy and largely without result.  

This year, there have been multiple rape cases in the city including that of a minor girl at a wedding hall in Orangi and the gang-rape of a 12-year-old in the Ghaggar Phatak area. Investigations in all cases, including the two cited above, have not led to any concrete progress with the former pending in court and the latter seeing the victim hold a conference at the Karachi Press Club on March 23 to appeal for justice.  With almost all of this year’s gender-based violence cases of Karachi in limbo, it is unfortunately quite plausible that, instead of stern action against the perpetrators, we would continue to witness more such appeals from courageous, yet powerless, survivors.

Man kills daughter

Skewed notions of honour claimed yet another woman’s life in the city as an 18-year-old girl was murdered by her father in North Karachi.

As per the Sir Syed Town SHO Iftikhar Ahmed, the killer, Akhtar Hussain, who remains at large, is a drug addict who murdered his daughter, Bakhtawar, over suspicions regarding her character. Investigators said the duo had a heated argument yesterday which culminated with Hussain attacking his daughter with a knife. The victim suffered multiple stab wounds and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.