Child – Pakistan Gender News

February 27, 2021February 27, 2021

Two sentenced in child assault cases

MANSEHRA/ DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The local courts on Friday awarded jail sentences to two people in sexual assault cases here.

Additional district and sessions judge of Mansehra Usman Bashir convicted a man for assaulting a minor girl with hearing and speech impairment in 2019 and handed down life imprisonment and Rs0.5 million fine to him.

The court also awarded seven years more imprisonment and Rs50,000 fine to the convict under Section 53 of the Child Protection Act, 2018.

“The convict will spend a total of 32 years in jail under both sentences announced by the judge under Section 376 of PPC and Section 53 of the Child Protection Act, while he will pay Rs0.5 million fine to be given away to the girl as compensation,” said Asim Mashhadi, lawyer for the assault victim.

Convict Mohammad Arif, a mason, had sexually assaulted a nine-year-old-girl at her Major Ayub Khan Road house on the outskirts of Mansehra city after sending her parents to the market to bring construction material.

Meanwhile, a child protection court in Dera Ismail Khan has sentenced a man to seven years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs100,000 for attempting to rape two children aged 11 and 13.

Judge Mohammad Asif ordered that if the convict did not pay the amount of fine he would have to undergo another six months imprisonment and would have to pay an additional Rs50,000 as compensation to the families of the affected children.

According to the prosecution, Zahid, a resident of Bilalabad, Muriali, was charged with taking two children to an empty house on the day of the incident, where he attempted to sexually molest them.

The families and residents, while searching for the children, entered the house after hearing their noise. They held the accused and handed him over to the Cantonment police. A case was registered against him under sections 377/511 of PPC.

The court sentenced him under the Child Protection Act.

Newspaper: Dawn

October 30, 2018

Panel on Zainab’s case suggests certain measures on child abuse

ISLAMABAD: In a backdrop of Zainab’s murder case, a report of a task force, constituted by Federal Ombudsman to diagnose systematic issue of child abuse suggested some certain measures to curb the menace.

The report titled ‘Mapping of Issues & Response to Sexual Violence Against Children’ recently submitted before the Steering committee on Kasur Tragedy & Redressal of systematic issues proposed 11-point remedial measures to prevent and control the rising cases of shameful acts with children in different parts of the country, especially Kasur.

The document also highlighted the concerned authorities’ failure in controlling the incidents and tracing the culprits of certain mafia involved in child pornography. Unfortunately the report revealed Punjab’s most pathetic situation where some 1,089 cases of sexual violence, out of 4,139 in the entire country in 2017, were reported. Lahore was among top where majority of the incidents occurred.

Kasur-based study was conducted in six months involving extensive desk research of prevailing system and legal framework, meetings with multi-stakeholders and a five-week long field work. The study recommended long and short term steps.

Setting up of a ‘One Stop Facilitation Centre’ in Kasur as pilot project on earliest in order to provide medical, psychiatric, psycho-social and legal support to the victims and their families at district and tehsil level was a short term solution recommended by the force.

It was endorsed in the steering committee chaired by Syed Tahir Shabaz Wafaqi Mohtsib that such centres would be run under the supervision of a committee comprising of official of health department and federal and provincial commissioners.

International development partners and Unicef would be approached for financial assistance to manage these centres.

The report also recommended such centres must be equipped tools to conduct effective monitoring, reporting and oversight of child right violation. Beside, ensuring the legal assistance and other necessary help to the aggrieved parties. It also emphasized for developing database of DNA of the criminals, suspects and potential perpetrators at district Kasur level on urgent basis to ensure quick tracing of the offenders of sexual abuse and missing children, besides adopting zero tolerance against culprits.

“Long term initiatives proposed enactment of new laws and some amendments in existing laws to ensure psyco-social, legal and medical support as well as prohibition of exonerating of accused with the consent of aggrieved. The legal time-frame of such cases must be reduced to six months,” it added.

The installation of more close-circuit television (CCCTV) cameras in more prone cities and development of protocol with Facebook and Google authorities to control inflow and outflow of pornographic materials is also suggested.

It also underlined to introduce educational reforms by starting sensitization and training of school/ Madrassah going children and teachers, boy scouts and girl guides to beat the threat of such attempts.

Parents should also be imparted trainings on same lines. Police trainings are more critical to handle the victim, accused and media as per national and international laws, the report highlighted.

Talking to this agency, Commissioner for Children and Adviser of Federal Ombudsman Syeda Viqar-un-Nisa Hashmi said the report is now with the President of Pakistan and consultation on child abused issue with parliamentarians are scheduled in the coming days.

Syeda Viqar said they would provide full support and facilitate the concerned authorities for rooting out this menace from the country. The commissioner regretted that about 92 per cent of the reported accused were illiterate and had formal education.

Forty five per cent of whom studied up to only primary level, followed by 15 who went to have secondary and middle classes, she added. She stressed to educate parents for keeping the children away from the electronic gadgets which were a main source of incitement in early ages.

The News

October 21, 2018October 24, 2018

11-year-old girl kidnapped in Hala

HYDERABAD: A minor girl belonging to the Hindu community was abducted from her residence in Hala town of Matiari district on Friday. The family of 11-year-old Monika Luhano, a student of class six, has nominated a young man and his three accomplices in the FIR registered at the Hala police station.

Pushpal Luhano, the complainant in the FIR, claimed that Mushtaq Mahar, son of a school teacher, Sabit Ali Mahar, and a resident of Allah Dino Mahar village in Matiari, kidnapped Monika. He kidnapped her along with his three associates.

“Mushtaq and three others, all armed, entered our house and took away my sister. When we resisted, they warned that we would be shot dead,” claimed Pushpal.

According to him, before the kidnapping incident, Mushtaq used to stalk his sister by following her in the street. He claimed that he warned the suspects against wandering on their street a few times. The local Hindu Panchayat and the Hindu traders joined the family in a protest and surrounded the police station before registration of the FIR.

In their chants, they demanded the recovery of the girl and punishment for the alleged kidnapper while demanding security for their community living in Hala. Meanwhile, Hala SHO Shakil Ahmed Rind assured the protesters that the police would arrest the suspect and requested them to disperse.

Seth Nand Kumar, a representative of the community, told the media that the incident has instilled a renewed fear in the community which is already distressed over alleged forced marriages of Hindu girls. He warned of a stronger reaction across the province if Monika is not recovered. The community did not send their daughters to school on Saturday.

The police raided the residence of Mushtaq on Saturday and detained the suspect’s father and some other persons. However, the four suspects and the girl were not found at the residence, according to the SHO.

The Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013, has declared the marriage of young people of under 18 years of age as an offence. The persons solemnising such a marriage are punishable under the Act. Monika was enrolled in Government Girls Primary School, Makhdoom Rafique Zaman.

The Express Tribune

October 18, 2018

Serial child rapist-murderer hanged to death

LAHORE – A man convicted of raping and murdering at least five children in Kasur district was hanged in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail before dawn on Wednesday.

Twenty-five-year-old Imran Ali was executed in presence of Muhammad Amin Ansari, father of seven-year-old Zainab, one of the victims found murdered after being raped in Kasur early this year.

An official of the central jail told The Nation on Wednesday that a medical officer and two magistrates were also present there at the time of the execution. “He (Imran) was sent to the gallows shortly before dawn and was hanged to death after proper medical checkup,” the official said. The jail staff also allowed the convict to take a bath before hanging.

Authorities performed the first execution of this year in Lahore’s central jail on Wednesday morning amid heightened security and massive deployment of anti-riot units around the prison. Elite police commandoes were also on patrol around the prison.

Zainab’s father Amin Ansari while talking to reporters outside the jail said that the criminal had met his fate and he had seen the whole episode with own eyes. “He was hanged to death. And, I have seen this with my own eyes. (His) body was removed from the gallows after 30 minutes,” Ansari said. He further said the execution would not console Zainab’s grief-stricken mother who still remains in shock. But, such criminals must be given an exemplary punishment, he said.

In January, Amin Ansari during a talk-show on Waqt News, had stated, “I have lost trust in government and the police. I appeal to the chief of army staff and the chief justice of Pakistan to provide us justice.” Ansari also thanked chief justice of Pakistan and said that the callous met his fate.

Following Imran’s execution, the dead body was handed over to his relatives. A brother and uncle of Imran reached the jail on a private ambulance to collect the body. As media crews rushed towards the ambulance, Imran’s relatives immediately covered their faces with hands and refused to talk to media persons. The body was transported to a graveyard for burial in an ambulance. Several police squads accompanied the ambulance to provide security cover to the relatives of the convict. Authorities did not disclose the burial site citing security reasons. Imran was likely to be buried late Wednesday.

A day earlier, Imran’s family was allowed to hold “final meeting” with him as per the jail rules. An official said Imran wept bitterly and sought apology from his mother during his meeting. He was also ashamed over his actions and he was repeatedly seeking apology from his mother and relatives.

In a letter sent to Zainab’s father, the jail superintendent asked the complainant to reach the jail before dawn so that the execution could be carried out in his presence. However, the parents of other four victims did not visit the jail to witness the hanging. All the victims were as young as five-year-old. They were identified by police as Laiba, Mahreen, Kainat, Noor Fatima and Ayesha Batool.

Imran was booked by police in seven child rape and murder cases and the court announced its verdict in five such cases. Last week, Imran’s death warrants were issued after President Arif Alvi rejected his mercy petition in the Zainab murder case.

Zainab was abducted by a man when she was going to a religious school nearby on January 4. Several days later, her body was found abandoned in the fields near Elite College on Shahbaz Khan Road, locals said.

Zainab’s murder had triggered widespread outrage and violent protests in Kasur district with rights activists calling for justice for Zainab. A high-powered joint investigation team comprising police investigators and intelligence operatives had been constituted to unearth the serial killer.

Clashes erupted between police and protesters in Kasur city after discovery of the body early this year. Two protesters had died and seven others wounded as police opened fire to disperse angry mob.

DNA helped police identity killer

Imran was arrested as a result of DNA profiling. Also, during his polygraph tests, the suspect confessed to his crime before an investigation team. The DNA matching was 100 percent, according to officials. In his (video-recording) statement, Imran confessed to raping and killing six other children.

During Zainab murder case probe, the police established on the basis of DNA reports of the victims that a single person was involved in at least seven rape and murder cases. Police had interrogated a few thousand people and collected DNA tests of at least 1150 residents of the locality. Then Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced arrest of the serial rapist and murderer before media persons in presence of Muhammad Amin, father of Zainab.

Who was the serial rapists and murderer?

Resident of Road Kot, Imran Ali, also a neighbour of Zainab, was said to be a carpenter by profession. He had joined protesters after discovery of the body. He was also seen among relatives of the victims as media persons rushed to the violence-hit district. The police could not reach the serial killer unless the DNA profiling proved him guilty in at least seven similar cases.

Imran had left school when he was in class-III. Local residents were in a state of shock as they came to know that the serial killer police were hunting for was in fact Imran Ali. Imran used to participate in religious gatherings. He was living with his two brothers and four sisters. The house of the killer was located just 120 metres away from the victim’s residence. Hence, he was familiar with the child. He had raped and killed at least seven children within a radius of two kilometres but the police failed to arrest him.

Child abuse in Kasur

In 2015, country’s biggest child abuse scandal surfaced in the same Kasur district following the discovery of 400 videos recording more than 280 children being forced to have sex. The Nation exposed the biggest child abuse scandal that made headlines across the world.

Most of the victims were under 14 years of age but included a six-year-old boy who was forced to perform a homosexual act and a 10-year-old schoolgirl who was filmed being molested by a 14 year old boy. One of the victims said he was injected in the spine with a drug before he was assaulted.

The Nation

Kidnapped children

A rash of child kidnappings in Karachi over the past few weeks has sparked so much panic that is becoming difficult to separate fact from fiction. What we do know for certain is that at least 23 children have been kidnapped, from which only three have been recovered so far. The Sindh High Court has directed a special police team to recover the missing children as soon as possible. But there are also a lot of unverifiable rumours doing the rounds. There is a particular fear that children are being kidnapped from schools, with many parents now scared of sending their children to school. Even though DIG South Javed Alam Odho has categorically rejected this as untrue, the rumours continue to persist. One video of a child being snatched from a school van went viral on social media – although it later turned out that this was an old TV shoot. One reason worried parents are susceptible to WhatsApp forwards and social-media rumour-mongering is the complete breakdown of faith in official institutions. When people have no trust in the police and know that they cannot believe anything said to them by politicians, they are more likely to believe what they hear and see on social media.

The only way for the state to regain trust is by showing that it is capable of doing its job. This means that it first needs to come clean about the incidence of child kidnappings and show that it is making a serious effort to recover them. The only response from the Sindh government so far was to set up a special number that can be called to report kidnappings. All this did was add yet another phone number that no one will remember at a time of trauma. Instead, Pakistan needs to work towards setting up a centralised emergency service like ‘911’ in the US or ‘999’ in the UK. We need to completely change how we treat the relationship between citizens and law-enforcement officials. Even something as basic as filling out an FIR is made as difficult as possible by the police. One reason so many crimes, including child kidnappings, go unreported is because there is such little faith in the police and dealing with them can be so burdensome. It is past time for law enforcement to recognise that the problem is on their end and that it has empowered criminals and kidnappers

The News