A detailed report was compiled by four-member team of HRCP which visited Chunian tehsil of Kasur last week and collected data through different sources.
In its report, the commission suggested that security cameras should be installed in the town on priority basis. It said that schools, colleges, madrassas and mosques should be used as platforms to raise awareness about child sexual abuse and to suggest measures for protecting the children. It added that the areas where almost similar incidents have been occurred at different times must be searched thoroughly for any other evidence and identified by the administration so that people avoid the area at present. The commission said in the report that Kasur district in Punjab has observed the grisly discovery of bodies of four children on September 17 namely Faizan, Hussnain, Imran and Suleman. It is suspected that they were also subjected to sexual assault. This follows several high-profile cases of child abuse and murder in Kasur, among them the discovery of a child pornography ring in 2015 that had targeted about 300 children, and the brutal rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in 2018. After which, it is 12th such incident of child sexual abuse to have occurred within a 10-km radius in a single year, the report stated.
According to the HRCP, the team met the deputy commissioner concerned, the police investigation officer of the case and the families of three of the victims. While the police explained the measures they had taken to some extent, almost all the victim families felt they had received very little or no support from the administration and law enforcement agencies and held little hope that the police investigation will reveal the culprits.
The report said Kasur Deputy Commissioner Azhar Hayat said a local group needs to be set up to increase awareness about prevalence of child abuse and prevent such incidents from recurring and Child Protection Bureau will be strengthened. As per report, to maximize the department’s outreach, the government has decided to set up village/union council-level committees within the next 15 days while in each case, these will consist of the headmaster of the local government school, the prayer leader, the nambardar (local leader) and other notable people of the village.
DSP Chunian Mr Durrani apprised the team of details of the case and the efforts being made by the police. He said police was obtaining DNA samples of people living within a three-km radius of each of the victims’ homes before expanding their search.
The HRCP team met Ramzan, the father of one of the victims, eight-year-old Faizan. Ramzan is the prayer leader at the local mosque. He said his son, a third-grade student, was allegedly kidnapped on the evening of 16 September. The following day, Faizan’s body was found in a nearby ditch. Ramzan was clearly devastated: he could barely speak and respond to very few of the team’s questions. A neighbour of Faizan to whom the team spoke claimed that, in the last four years, there had been about 700 cases of child abuse. He said the administration believes there is a single perpetrator.
The second victim, Salman, was eight years old and studying in the second grade. His family lives in a slum in three rooms built around an uneven courtyard. Salman’s family informed the HRCP team that he had been missing since August 8, 2019. His parents had repeatedly visited the police station before registering an FIR. However, on every visit, they were told to search for their son themselves.
Finally, the team met Ali Hussnain’s parents, who live two streets away from Salman’s family. Ali’s mother said that her nine-year-old son used to help his father sell hosiery. He went missing on August 17, 2019. His parents visited the police station very next day to report but the police advised them to search for Ali at Data Darbar or at a neighbour or relative’s home.
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