ISLAMABAD: The city of Kasur in Pakistan’s Punjab province has exploded into violence following the sexual assault and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari, whose body was found in a rubbish dump on Tuesday. She is reportedly the 12th child to have been murdered in the last year in, or close to, Kasur — a city with a long history of pedophile scandals.
Protesters infuriated by perceived government inaction over this latest crime attacked a hospital, a police station, and government offices, bringing public transport to a halt and forcing the closure of the courts. On Thursday, residents attacked the homes of politicians.
While the restive city calmed somewhat on Friday, the nation remains enraged over the police’s failure to arrest the perpetrator of the crime.
“We want justice, and we hope that the killer of our daughter will not go scot-free,” Zainab’s father, Muhammad Amin, told Arab News.
“We hope the killer will not only be arrested but also given exemplary punishment.”
Zainab is believed to have been abducted outside a religious tuition center she attended just 100 meters from her home on Thursday, Jan. 4. Her parents were in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah at that time, and she was in the care of her maternal aunt.
A number of social, political and religious figures have visited the bereaved parents in recent days. And Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa assured Zainab’s family that the criminal would be caught and punished.
Kasur resident Mohammed Junaid said police had not taken the spate of child murders seriously and that no arrests have been made during their investigations.
“The people of Kasur are left with no option but to protest against the inaction of the government and the police,” he told Arab News, adding that they would “set all government buildings in the city on fire” if the culprit was not arrested soon.
The police aggravated the situation further on Wednesday when they shot and killed two protesters. Later, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif apologized to the families of the victims and promised compensation.
“The whole nation should come out to express solidarity with Zainab’s parents and demand the rulers to take cogent measures to put an end to such incidents,” Shakil Iftikhar, a businessman in Kasur, told Arab News.
There are signs, though, that the government may finally have been jolted into action.
Talking to Arab News, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb emphasized that all political parties should join together to create awareness about child abuse and help the government enact effective legislation.
“We will try our best to include the issue of child abuse in the curriculum by taking all parties on board,” she said, while urging the nation to stay calm as the government was doing its best to live up to people’s expectations.
It is not just Kasur that has witnessed an alarming increase in the sexual assault of minors. According to Sahil, a non-governmental organization for victims of violence and sexual abuse, there were 4,139 cases of child sexual abuse — including abduction, missing children and child marriage — in Pakistan in 2016, an average of 11 incidents per day and a 10 percent increase on 2015.
Sahil’s annual report, “Cruel Numbers,” revealed in 2016: “Following the previous year’s data, more girls have been sexually abused this year as well. The reported cases under major crime categories are: abduction 1,455, rape 502, sodomy 453, gang rape 271, gang sodomy 268 and 362 cases of attempted (child sexual abuse). An even more serious crime is committed when the victim is murdered. A total of 100 victims were murdered after sexual assaults.”
As tensions continued to run high on Friday, the Punjab government appointed Regional Police Officer Multan Idrees Ahmad as head of the joint investigation team for Zainab’s murder.
Punjab Government spokesperson Malik Ahmed Khan told Arab News that the police have unearthed a connection between Zainab’s killing and recent incidents of a similar nature in Kasur.
Khan said that experts from the forensic science laboratory had been working on the magnification of an image of the suspect.
“We are establishing a criminal database for the first time in the country’s history to identify suspects through facial recognition,” he said.
He claimed police were “close to the suspect now.”
Murder of Zainab, 6, stirs outrage in Pakistan
Murder of Zainab, 6, stirs outrage in Pakistan
Gaza student evacuated to UK with her family after government climbdown
- Manar Al-Houbi was initially denied permission to bring her husband and children after changes to UK rules on foreign scholarship recipients
- Several students still stranded in Gaza as relocation deadline looms, after refusing to abandon family members
LONDON: A student from Gaza granted permission to live and study in the UK has been evacuated from the Palestinian territory, with her family, by the British government.
Manar Al-Houbi won a full scholarship to study for a doctorate at the University of Glasgow. It also allowed her to bring her husband and children with her, and they applied for the required visas. But shortly before her studies were due to start, UK authorities told her the rules for international students and their dependents had changed and her family could no longer accompany her.
Shortly after her story was reported in October, however, the government backed down as said it would consider evacuation of international students’ dependents on a “case-by-case basis.”
Al-Houbi and her family are now in Jordan, on their way to the UK, The Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. The British scheme for the evacuation of students from Gaza is due to expire on Dec. 31. People who have attempted to use it have described it as being riddled with issues, as a result of which some students with scholarships have been left stranded in the Palestinian territory.
Several told the Guardian they had decided not to travel to the UK because they had felt pressured into leaving loved ones behind, including children.
Wahhaj Mohammed, 32, said he was told by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to travel to the UK alone, and his wife and children would be allowed to join him later. Two months after he arrived in Glasgow, his family are still in Gaza with no time frame for them to follow him.
“The uncertainty affects every aspect of my life here,” he told The Guardian. “It’s difficult to settle, to feel present or to engage academically when the people you love most remain living under constant threat.”
The Guardian said UK officials were “hopeful” his family would be evacuated in 2026 but could offer no guarantee about when this might happen.
Another student, Amany Shaher, said she refused to leave her family behind in Gaza and as a result was denied permission to travel to the UK this week. She does not know whether she will be permitted to defer her scholarship to study at the University of Bristol.
The 34-year-old, who has three children, said: “How can I even consider leaving my children behind in Gaza? Nowhere else in the world would a mother be expected to part so easily from her children. It’s dehumanizing. We have a right to stick together as a family and not be forced to separate — that should not be too much to ask.
“None of us know if the UK’s student evacuation scheme will be extended or not. We haven’t been given any clear guidance or timelines and have no idea what 2026 will bring.”
Mohammed Aldalou also refused to leave behind his family, including his 5-year-old autistic and non-verbal son, to take up a scholarship for postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics.
He said the Foreign Office had suggested to him he travel separately from them, as they did with Mohammed.
“They should ask themselves what they would do if they were in my shoes,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking that after everything we’ve been through, we’re being asked to make this impossible decision.”
Sources told The Guardian it was unlikely the Foreign Office would extend the scheme to allow students to travel from Gaza to the UK later, but that a meeting took place last week with the Department for Education to discuss whether students could begin their studies online.
