For the victims

While the country and its media remained engrossed in the gruesome case involving the rape and murder of little Zainab in Kasur, the reality of other children around the country suffering brutal sexual assault, and in some cases death, also continued. According to figures from local and international organisations, 10 to 11 children in Pakistan suffer violent sexual abuse each day. Some are killed after the assault. One of these victims was four-year old Asma from Mardan whose body was found in a sugarcane field on January 14, a few hours after she had disappeared while playing outside her house. The Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory has now confirmed she had been raped before being strangled to death. Taking suo-motu notice of the case on Friday, Chief Justice Justice Saqib Nisar has ordered the IG police for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to submit a report.

This is tragically not a one-off incident. In the Mardan area alone over the past year, at least two other small girls have been found dead after having been raped. Police say attempts are on in Mardan to detect and capture the killer of little Asma. We now have a situation where rampant sexual abuse across the country, in all four provinces, is finally being highlighted. The discussions on the problem and notice taken by courts as well as politicians, is a positive step. We wonder, however, how long this attention will last and when we will forget the fate that thousands of children in the country suffer each year. What we need to do is to find long-term measures to protect our children. This does not stop at the punishment of those found guilty, though consistent punishment is of course a pre-requisite of social justice and deterrence. Other measures are also needed. A list of persons found guilty in the past of any sexual misconduct involving children must be created and made available with local police stations. This could help narrow the search when a tragedy occurs. A DNA database must also be created and effectively used. This should become easier with the widening of the biometric system used by Nadra for CNICs and other documents. At the same time, parents need to be made aware of the need to watch out for their children. Those who live in congested ‘mohallas’, unprotected by walled compounds or tall gates are most at risk. But as we have been reminded by Zainab’s case, most perpetrators of such crimes are known to the victims and his or her family. The danger that lives within social groups and inside homes needs to be discussed further so that we can save other children from the savage deaths suffered by Zainab, Asma and so many others.