Second Day of Protests Over Child Rape and Murder

Demonstrators accuse police of failing to act against perpetrators of child murders

Hundreds of protesters enraged over the murder of a young girl threw stones at government buildings in Kasur for a second day on Thursday, amid growing outrage over the killing.

The demonstrators hurled projectiles at a hospital, attacked the home of at least one local politician, and complained of police inaction in the city of Kasur in Punjab province, a day after two protesters were killed when the rallies turned violent. The outrage has spilled over in Kasur after the body of a child was found in a garbage heap Tuesday, where she is believed to have been dumped after being raped and murdered.

The child, named as Zainab, is the eighth minor to have been raped and murdered in Kasur in the past 12 months, police have said. Officials had earlier put her age at eight, but her family told AFP that she was just six years old.

“Up to 1,000 protesters are in the streets,” said Kasur police spokesman Muhammad Sajid. “They have thrown stones on the buildings of the government hospital, police and deputy commissioner’s office… Security is deployed and trying to control the situation.”

The demonstrators had accused police of failing to act over the child murders.

Sajid said that up to 20 suspects had been apprehended “but the investigators have been unable to find any clue so far.”

“Police are not cooperating with us,” claimed Ghulam Rasool, an uncle of Zainab. “We want justice. We want the culprit to be brought in front of us. We don’t want an innocent to be presented as the culprit and killed just to wash this case.”

Zainab’s killing has sparked a social media deluge, with politicians, celebrities, cricketers and average Pakistanis demanding #JusticeForZainab.

On Wednesday at least two protesters were killed when police fired into the crowd of demonstrators as they tried to storm a government building in Kasur, a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Anger at police has been fueled by Kasur’s infamy as the site of what has been dubbed Pakistan’s largest child abuse scandal. The 2015 scandal saw allegations that at least 280 children were filmed being sexually abused by a gang of 25 men who blackmailed their parents by threatening to leak the videos.

It came to light after parents of the victims clashed with police in Kasur during a protest blasting authorities for failing to prosecute the case. The Punjab government has announced a reward of 10 million rupees for information leading to the killer’s capture, as well as compensation packages for the protesters killed on Wednesday. </s> A mob angered over the recent rape and murder of an 8-year-old Pakistan girl attacked a police station and a nearby government building in eastern Punjab province on Wednesday, triggering clashes that left at least two people dead and several injured, police said.

The violence erupted in the city of Kasur hours before the funeral of Zainab Ansari, whose case has drawn wide public outrage.

The girl went missing last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies. Her parents, who were away at a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia at the time, returned on Wednesday, landing at the Islamabad airport.

Zainab’s body was found on Tuesday in a garbage bin, senior police officer Imran Nawaz Khan said. Police say she was abducted, raped and murdered. Officer Maqsood Ahmed said six girls were sexually assaulted in recent months in Kasur and that police were probing whether there was a connection in the cases.

WATCH: Pakistani student beaten to death by peers in latest ‘blasphemy killing’

Activists on social media have condemned the government for failing to arrest those involved in the crime.

As the attack on the police station and the subsequent clashes unfolded Wednesday, local TVs broadcast footage showing police firing shots in the air and toward the stone-pelting mob, trying to disperse it. In one segment, an officer asks another to hold direct fire, after which the second officer is seen continuing to shoot at the protesters.

Also Wednesday, the Lahore High Court’s chief justice ordered a probe into Zainab’s killing.

Zulfiqar Hameed, the police chief in Kasur, refused to say whether the two people killed in Wednesday’s clashes had died from police gunshots. Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the police were trying to contain the violence and find and arrest those involved in the girl’s murder.

Kasur shop owners shut their businesses Wednesday to express their anger over Zainab’s slaying.

READ MORE: Why are women in Pakistan and India at risk of brutal violence?

Firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri who took part in Ansari’s funeral service demanded the local government be replaced, saying it has “no right to remain in power after the killing of Zainab Ansari.”

In a speech to thousands of mourners, he blamed the Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, for failing to “protect lives and honour of innocent girls” in the province.

Qadri also issued an ultimatum to Sharif and Sanaullah to step down by Jan. 17 to avoid street protest.

Qadri is a staunch political rival of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party and he has led violent rallies in the capital, Islamabad, since 2014 after eight of his supporters were killed in anti-government rallies in Lahore, Punjab provincial capital. </s> Hundreds of protesters enraged over the murder of a young girl threw stones at government buildings in a Pakistani city near the Indian border for a second day Thursday, amid growing outrage over the killing.

The demonstrators hurled projectiles at a hospital, attacked the home of at least one local politician, and complained of police inaction in the city of Kasur in Punjab province, a day after two protesters were killed when the rallies turned violent.

The outrage has spilled over in Kasur after the body of a child was found in a garbage heap Tuesday, where she is believed to have been dumped after being raped and murdered.

The child, named as Zainab, is the eighth minor to have been raped and murdered in Kasur in the past 12 months, police have said.

Officials had earlier put her age at eight, but her family told AFP that she was just six years old.

"Up to 1,000 protesters are in the streets," Kasur police spokesman Muhammad Sajid told AFP.

"They have thrown stones on the buildings of the government hospital, police and deputy commissioner's office... Security is deployed and trying to control the situation."

The demonstrators had accused police of failing to act over the child murders.

Sajid said that up to 20 suspects had been apprehended "but the investigators have been unable to find any clue so far".

"Police are not cooperating with us," Ghulam Rasool, an uncle of Zainab, told AFP.

"We want justice. We want the culprit to be brought in front of us. We don't want an innocent to be presented as the culprit and killed just to wash this case."

Zainab's killing has sparked a social media deluge, with politicians, celebrities, cricketers and average Pakistanis demanding #JusticeForZainab.

On Wednesday at least two protesters were killed when police fired into the crowd of demonstrators as they tried to storm a government building in Kasur, a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Anger at police has been fuelled by Kasur's infamy as the site of what has been dubbed Pakistan's largest child abuse scandal.

The 2015 scandal saw allegations that at least 280 children were filmed being sexually abused by a gang of 25 men who blackmailed their parents by threatening to leak the videos.

It came to light after parents of the victims clashed with police in Kasur during a protest blasting authorities for failing to prosecute the case.

The Punjab government has announced a reward of 10 million rupees ($90,000) for information leading to the killer's capture, as well as compensation packages for the protesters killed Wednesday. </s> A police officer has been sacked for mishandling an investigation into the kidnap, rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Pakistan.

Zainab Ansari disappeared on her way to a lesson to study the Koran on January 4.

Her body was found in a rubbish heap more than a mile from her home in Kasur, close to the border with India, on Tuesday.

Officials initially said she was eight years old but her family have confirmed she was just six.

The brutal murder has sparked outrage across Pakistan, with up to 1,000 protesters lining the streets in Kasur, Lahore and Karachi.

Following a meeting with Zainab’s father Anees, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif sacked Kasur’s police chief for negligence.

Mr Ansari had accused the police of being slow to respond after his daughter was reported missing last week.

Zainab’s uncle, Ghulam Rasool, said: ‘Police are not co-operating with us. We want justice.

‘We want the culprit to be brought in front of us. We don’t want an innocent to be presented as the culprit and killed just to wash this case.’

Two people were killed and three others wounded as demonstrators clashed with police in Kasur on Wednesday, hours before Zainab’s funeral.

Three police officers were arrested for opening fire on protesters instead of into the air.

The protests continued into Thursday, with Kasur police spokesman Muhammad Sajid saying protestors had ‘thrown stones on the buildings of the government hospital, police and deputy commissioner’s office’.

Up to 20 people have been arrested over Zainab’s murder ‘but the investigators have been unable to find any clue so far’ Mr Sajid said.

Zainab is the eighth child to have been raped and murdered in Kasur in the last 12 months, according to police.

The Punjab government has offered a reward of 10 million rupees (£66,460) for information leading to the killer’s capture, as well as compensation for the protesters killed on Wednesday.

Zainab’s death comes less than three years after a scandal in Kasur when at least 280 children were filmed being sexually abused by a gang of 25 men, who blackmailed their parents by threatening to leak the videos. </s> Protesters marched for a second day Thursday in the Pakistani city of Kasur over the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl whose body was found dumped on a garbage pile.

Zainab Amin’s killing has angered local people who say the authorities in Punjab province have done too little to keep their children safe after a series of similar killings.

At least two people died Wednesday as protesters clashed with police.

Punjab’s Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif ordered police to arrest the girl’s killers in the next 24 hours and offered a 10 million Pakistani rupee bounty (over $90,000) for anyone who helps identify those responsible.

He also asked police to provide full details of the 11 murders of young girls in the same area before that of Zainab.

Amid rising anger, demonstrators ransacked the office of a local lawmaker for the ruling party, Naeem Safdar, on Thursday and chanted slogans calling for the resignation of Shehbaz Sharif.

An autopsy has confirmed that Zainab was strangled and sodomized and suggests she was raped, the medical officer who carried out the examination, Dr Quratulain Atique, told CNN.

There were torture marks on her face and Zainab’s tongue was crushed between her teeth, she said. The report suggests that when the autopsy was performed, she may have been dead for two or three days already.

Geo News reported that Zainab was taken from near her home in Kasur on January 4 while her parents were in Saudi Arabia on an Umrah pilgrimage. Surveillance video provided by the family to police shows Zainab being led away by a man.

Her father, Muhammad Amin Ansari, now back in Pakistan, told Geo News that police were not doing enough to find their child. He said they would not bury their daughter until those responsible were arrested.

Kasur district was previously at the center of a child sexual abuse scandal in which a gang of up to 25 men was accused of blackmailing scores of children into making sex videos between 2009 and 2014. The abuse was uncovered in 2015 and a number of suspects arrested.

The experience has scarred the local community. “For the last two years, we are living in fear, parents are scared to send their kids outside,” Zainab’s father told reporters.

Kasur regional police officer Muhammad Kausar Zulfiqar told CNN that the girl’s body was found on a heap of garbage only 100 meters from her home in Kasur.

This is the 12th such case in the same 2-kilometer area, the regional police office confirmed, and DNA test results match in at least five of the cases. Zainab was first reported missing on January 5 by her uncle, the regional police office added.

Outrage over Zainab’s murder quickly spread on social media in Pakistan, with many using the hashtag #JusticeForZainab.

Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Price winner, lent her voice to the push for justice.

“Heartbroken to hear about Zainab — a 7 year old child abused and brutally killed in Kasur, Pakistan,” she tweeted. “This has to stop. Gov and the concerned authorities must take action.” </s> Pakistani residents carry the body of a girl during her funeral in Kasur in Punjab Province on Wednesday, following her rape and murder (AFP photo)

LAHORE, Pakistan — Two civilians were killed when officers fired live rounds to disburse crowds that attacked a police station in Pakistan on Wednesday in a protest over the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl.

Police recovered the body of Zainab Ansari on Tuesday from a garbage dumpster in the town of Kasur in eastern Pakistan, four days after she was reported missing.

It was the twelfth incident of a girl being adducted, raped, and killed in the past year in Kasur district, police say. Residents have been furious at the authorities for what they see as a failure to investigate such cases.

The spokesman for Pakistan’s Punjab province, Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, told Reuters that protesters turned violent and attacked a local police office.

“They started throwing stones at the office and some of armed protesters shot bullets at police. In order to stop them, police resorted to aerial firing,” Khan said, adding that two people were killed and one wounded as a result.

“A peaceful protest was taking place, some students threw stones and police responded by firing at the crowd,” Saleem ur Rehman, a resident who was at the protest, told Reuters. “The law and order situation here is really bad and there have been many such incidents. That is what the protest was about.”

Ansari’s parents, who were not in the country when their daughter was kidnapped, returned on Wednesday.

“I want justice! I want justice!” Zainab’s mother cried, surrounded by reporters at the international airport in the capital Islamabad.

Ansari’s case has attracted the attention of the country’s civilian and military leadership, with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif calling for immediate action.

Police in Kasur deny they have been lax in investigating child abductions in the town. Regional police officer Zulfiqar Hameed told Reuters that four kidnappers had been arrested and another killed during an arrest attempt.

“Investigations reveal that in each case a paedophile kidnaps little girls, rapes them and kills them,” he said.

The case of Ansari would soon be solved, he said: “We have got CCTV footage that shows a young man taking her along. We will catch him very soon,” he said, adding that 95 DNA samples had been taken from suspects.

A number of police officials have been transferred out of the region for failing to investigate complaints of missing children since 2015, when authorities uncovered what they called a paedophile ring linked to a prominent local family. At least two people have been convicted in the case, in which authorities say hundreds of children in the district were abused. </s> As Pakistan continues to protest the rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur, Samaa TV news anchor Kiran Naz chose to register her protest by hosting the news bulletin with her daughter. “Today, I am not your news anchor Kiran Naz, today I am here as a mother. This is why I am sitting here with my daughter,” she said, as her daughter sat comfortably in her lap. “It is true when they say that the smallest coffins are the heaviest and entire Pakistan is burdened by the weight of her coffin.”

The TV journalist was referring to the rape and murder case which has sent shockwaves across Pakistan this week. The girl was allegedly abducted on January 4 when she was attending a Quran class. Her body was recovered by the police from a heap of garbage on January 9. The incident prompted severe backlash from civil society members and rights activists who have been protesting the repeated instances of child abuse and abduction in the Kasur region.

Here’s all you need to know about the case

The girl’s parents were on an umrah (pilgrimage) to Saudi Arabia when the incident took place. Naz on Wednesday pointed out the the tragic irony, saying that while the parents were praying for their daughter’s long life in Saudi Arabia, “a monster in Pakistan” killed her. “This is not just a child’s murder. This is the entire society’s murder,” she said.

The incident has sparked violent protests in the country. On Wednesday, police action against protesters resulted in the death of two civilians. Several others were injured.

For all the latest Pakistan News, download Indian Express App </s> LAHORE, Pakistan -- The father of a 7-year-old Pakistani girl whose rape and killing shocked the nation accused the police on Thursday of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing in eastern Punjab province.

The father, Anees Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughter's disappearance, spoke after meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Sharif travelled to the city of Kasur to visit the family hours after Ansari returned home from Saudi Arabia to attend his daughter's funeral Wednesday.
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The girl, Zainab Ansari, disappeared last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies and her body was found in a Kasur waste-yard on Tuesday.

Her murder sparked clashes Wednesday between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in the clashes.

Sharif, who had assured Zainab's father that justice would be done, also fired Kasur's police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement Thursday. Three police officers were arrested for opening fire at the mob instead of into the air during Wednesday's clashes.

Zainab's killing, which has drawn wide public outcry, prompted dozens of civil society activists to rally on Thursday in the city of Lahore. A similar rally took place Wednesday in the port city of Karachi.

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted Wednesday she was "heartbroken" about Zainab's tragic fate and demanded action against the killer. </s> Eight year old Zainab is the 12th child to be raped and murdered in Kasur, Pakistan.

The body of eight-year-old Zainab was discovered in a rubbish dump on Tuesday, five days after she had gone missing. Post-mortem reports have revealed that she had been raped and strangled to death.

Police in Kasur say that at least five of the 12 cases are linked to one suspect who is being hunted by officers and DNA samples have been taken from approximately 90 possible suspects.

Zainab’s murder has caused outrage all throughout Pakistan. Just hours before her funeral, on Wednesday police and protesters clashed as demonstrators tried to force their way into Kasur’s police station.

The protests have killed at least two people and several remain injured after paramilitary troops were called in to restore order.

Zainab went missing while she was on her way to a Quran recital. Her body was discovered just two kilometres away from her home.

Her parents were in Mecca for Umrah - an Islamic pilgrimage - when the eight-year-old was abducted and killed.

Shortly after arriving at Benazir Bhutto International airport, Zainab’s father alleged that police did not fully cooperate to finding his daughter, “If the police would have acted immediately, the culprit would have been caught,” he told reporters.

The family says that police did not take any action after reporting her missing and that relatives were the ones who recovered CCTV footage of Zainab.

According to Kasur police, incidents similar to Zainab’s seem to appear every other month.

Just last month, a nine-year-old went missing from Kasur’s city centre. The girl managed to escape her captor and returned home but has been left severely traumatized, reports say.

Zainab’s story has caught the attention of politicians, activists, artists and actors with the hashtag #JusticeforZainab now trending worldwide. Malala Yousafzai is one of the many who have joined the family’s call for justice.

The condemnable & horrific rape & murder of little Zainab exposes once again how vulnerable our children are in our society. This is not the first time such horrific acts have happened. We have to act swiftly to punish the guilty & ensure that our children are better protected. pic.twitter.com/9f7OM3hYT1 — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 10, 2018

Shocked, Disgusted and feeling sick to the core! What a shameful day for us, Zainab's killers must not only be hanged, they should be given such exemplary punishment that people should remember the lessson for ever. Pakistan rulers we're waiting for action! — Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) January 10, 2018
The rape and murder of six-year-old girl Zainab in Pakistan has sparked outrage across the country. Two people die in protests in Kasur city.