Protests staged over minor’s rape, killing
PHOTO: FILE
Scores took to the streets in Khairpur city on Wednesday, protesting the killing of a seven-year-old girl, M*, whose body was recovered on Saturday.
The protesters demanded the arrest of the culprits and strengthening the law to curb child abuse.
"It was a brutal murder of a young girl," said one of the protesters and civil society activist Saeed Sangri, while speaking to The Express Tribune. "The culprits should be arrested without any delay," he added.
He said M's family came from a low-income background and needed the government's and society's support.
Earlier, a protest was held to condemn the heinous act and demand justice for M's family in Pir Jo Goth on Tuesday.
The incident has also sparked outrage on social media, where people from all walks of life demanded that the government and law enforcement agencies arrest M's killers immediately.
M was a student of grade two and resident of Lung Larik village. According the preliminary medico-legal report, M was strangled to death after being raped.
An FIR of her murder was registered on her father, Ghulam Shabeer Larik's behalf. Larik, who is a labourer, told the police that his daughter used to work as domestic help in a house in Hadil Shah village. He said he visited the house of M's employers to enquire about his daughter when she didn't return home for two days. He, along with his relatives, later found her body in a banana orchard near Hadil Shah village. The police said three suspects had been arrested in the case so far.
*INITIAL USED TO PROTECT IDENTITY
Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2021.