Daily Times

KASUR: Hundreds of protesters enraged over the murder of a young girl threw stones at government buildings in Kasur 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, a day after two protesters were killed when the rallies turned violent.

An enraged mob stormed political office of a lawmaker belonging to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) shortly after funeral prayers of two men killed by Punjab police were offered.

A group of protesters forced their entry into the office of MPA Naeem Safdar Ansari and set fire to chairs and vehicles parked nearby. Safdar, who was elected from PP-177 (Kasur-III), was not present at his office when it came under attack.

Police fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters and fire tenders were called in to extinguish the fire.

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

The child 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.

“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.”

The autopsy examination of the child suggested that she had been raped and sodomized before being strangulated to death.

According to District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) Medico Legal Officer (MLO) Dr Quratulain Attique, the post-mortem examination revealed the child had died of strangulation while her hymen was ruptured. There was also evidence to suggest that the child had been sodomized.

According to the MLO, there were visible marks of torture on her face and congestion in her muscles while her tongue was badly bruised and injured as it was pressed between her teeth. She added that the hyoid bone was fractured, indicating strangulation.

Dr Attique said an initial examination suggested she may have been dead for two to three days. Zainab went missing on January 4, suggesting that she may have been held captive by her abductors for two to four days before she was killed.

Although the MLO did not explicitly confirm that the minor was raped, findings in the autopsy suggest that she may have been sexually assaulted.

Published in Daily Times, January 12^th 2018.