KARACHI: A six-year-old girl, who was reported missing three days ago, was found raped and murdered in the Bin Qasim area, Karachi.
According to the medical examination, the girl was brutally raped and then murdered. The girl’s body was recovered from a drain near National Highway.
The girl had gone missing while playing outside her home three days ago and the family had lodged a complaint at a police station.
In 2018, the gruesome murder and rape of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur, Punjab, shook the nation, leading to widespread protests.
Zainab went missing on January 4th, 2018, and her body was found five days later in a heap of trash. The six-year-old was raped and tortured before being strangled to death.
Later that year, police caught 24-year-old Imran Ali for raping and murdering Zainab. Imran Ali was convicted of similar crimes against six more girls and was handed a death sentence. The convict was hanged in October 2018.
In 2020, parliament passed a new law against child abuse in the wake of Zainab’s case.
The country’s first national child abuse law introduced a penalty of life imprisonment for child abuse. The law mandates police to register a case within two hours of a child’s parents reporting them missing.
Nearly 10 cases of child abuse a day are reported in Pakistan, with girls mostly affected, according to Sahil, an organisation that works on child protection.
