Ethnicity of corpse: corpse of ethnicity

Capital’s streets wear a serene silence, which is only breached by the horns-honking vehicles. Slum streets are, however, ruled by the laughter, cries, and noises of children. They might have gone deserted after the chilling abduction, rape and killing of a 10-year-old girl. She went missing on May 15 while playing on the street. At the fast-breaking meal, when her family did not find her around, they launched a frantic search for her. Finding no clue in their search for the missing angel, the family arrived at the police station seeking their help but only to be mocked and insulted and sent back by the cops.

As the little angel did not return, her father visited the police station the next day. I wonder why police officials are not moved by human tragedies. One only needs a little heart and an iota of empathy to understand a father’s worries who little daughter has been missing for more than 24 hours. Instead, the cop advised him to find the trace of the man with who she has eloped. Three more days went by without any sign of progress. Then stepped in a politician, who hit the locality, for the missing girl shared his ethnicity. Soon, it became a big issue – a big issue for the police and even bigger issue for the media.

The next day, her decomposed body was found.

Now, the crowd hyped up the ethnicity of the body; the media downgraded the nationality of the body. In the fight revolving around ethnicity and nationality, the last causality was empathy. Neither the mob nor the media cared for the fact that ethnicity and nationality are the issues reserved for the living people. A corpse has no nationality, no ethnicity.

The outrage will die down soon as the police officials are under the scanner of the law. The media has moved on to some other sensational topic while the politician has so many important things to do.

The little angel is now in a better place, where no beast can touch her, and no police officials can taunt her. She, however, has left a trail of questions for us to reflect.

She may ask the government, politicians and the media why they need a dead Zainab and now her body to pay attention to the child abuse issue. She is no more to see that a minister has delivered a compensatory cheque to her family. She will never know that the prime minister has been taking daily updates on her case. Also, she does not know the reason why her other age fellow kids who have been killed by pedophiles have not gotten justice.

She is still thinking about what made her special: ethnicity or nationality?