Pakistan

Murdering a child

Editorial July 20, 2010

The rape and murder of a four-year-old girl in Karachi on Sunday is a crime that rejuvenates one’s faith in the need for divine justice: no human mind could possibly devise a punishment severe enough for the perpetrators of such an abominable act. There is probably no more vile a crime known to humanity than rape. It is an invasion, both psychological and physical, of the target by an aggressor who seeks to gain a sense of power by violating another human being. The horror visited upon the victim is unimaginable; the psychological wounds inflicted often take years to heal. The arrest of the girl’s cousin, who has confessed to having committed the crime, suggests that a similar phenomenon exists in Pakistan as well.

It is not possible for a person to understand what would possess an individual to violate the trust of an innocent four-year-old girl in such a vicious manner. He apparently also had the audacity to then try to cover his tracks by leading a violent protest against the rape-murder, hoping perhaps that his zeal would not make him a suspect. The crime calls into question the larger issue of the preparedness of the police to deal with such incidents. Residents say that this is the third such incident in the area. The man who has been arrested also confessed, according to some news reports, to attacking two children before this. Why wasn’t any action taken against him? Also, at the risk of sounding insensitive, may we ask what the dead girl’s parents were doing by letting their child go unattended out of the house? Surely, this kind of supervision is not a correlation of income but rather comes with good sense and caution on the part of one’s parents.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2010.

COMMENTS (1)

Fatia | 13 years ago | Reply "May we ask what the dead girl’s parents were doing by letting their child go unattended out of the house?" We may ask that but that is not the point. The point is not were they 'good' parents which certainly cannot be determined by whether or not they let their 4-year-old trust the neighbourhood 'uncle.' The point is not where were they? Because they could have been next door or in the other room. The reason these cases happen is not because parent fail to police their infants (if only that could protect us). They happen because pedophiles prey on children. Waiting until they are alone, for one split second to attack. In many low income areas children will wander around alone because both parents are bread winners and there is noone to baby sit. They are vulnerable to drug pushers, pedophiles, kidnappers and just plain bad company. No parent wants to leave their child to fend for themselves. They do so because the choice is one between providing spiritual and emotinal support or the daily roti. Not really a choice at all.

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