Criminal negligence: Teenage girl from Azizabad raped, body thrown in sea

Police failed to take action the day the family filed a missing person’s report.

KARACHI:

Thirteen-year-old N* was found by terrified visitors at Sea View on Thursday morning. Her frail body, washed ashore, was covered in a grey kameez and white shalwar - her school uniform. Her black hair was buried in sand an her left cheek bore a scratch. She was kidnapped, raped and suffocated to death.

The only child of her parents, N was born to a kulfi vendor and his wife after 10 long years of marriage. However, criminals cut this cord two days ago.



“Is being childless my fate?” sobbed the teenage girl’s father as he sat in an ambulance outside the Jinnah hospital morgue, waiting to take his daughter home for burial. “Bring my daughter back to me. Bring her back. Please.”

The girl went missing on September 24 from Azizabad after an unidentified woman took her away from her school, the Rose Season Grammar School. The unknown woman, who has yet to be traced by the police, told the girl that her mother was feeling unwell and she was asking for her.

Despite a complaint lodged by N’s parents at the Azizabad police station against her disappearance the very same day, the police failed to find the whereabouts of the missing child or the woman. The police did spring into action on Thursday when they formed a team to arrest the criminals involved in the rape and the killing. SSP Amir Farooqi told The Express Tribune that they were interrogating the owners of the school, who claimed that the girl knew the woman since she did not hesitate to leave with her.

“We are also tracing a ransom call that the family received,” said SSP Farooqi, adding that the alleged kidnappers demanded Rs1 million for her recovery. “Perhaps, her relatives were involved. But we can’t say anything as the investigations are underway.”

N’s father, who lives in a slum in Azizabad, ruled out personal enmity for her daughter’s murder.  “I have no enemies with my relatives,” he said. “Even in my neighbourhood everyone is friendly towards me,” he added, recalling the time when their neighbours donated blood when his wife needed some during an operation.

Post-mortem report

MLO Dr Rohina Hasan told The Express Tribune that the cause of death was suffocation. She confirmed the girl was raped but denied that she was tortured. Meanwhile, DNA samples collected from her have been sent to Islamabad for testing.

Police - missing in action

Dismayed over the tragic incident, child rights organisations demanded the police take action as soon as families file missing reports.

Abdullah Langah of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child demanded that the police take cases of missing children seriously.  “The police only wake up once the victim is found dead,” he said. “They do not even register proper FIRs when parents come to police stations to lodge cases of their missing children.” He demanded that action should be taken against schools that allow anyone to pick a child from their premises.

According to Roshni Helpline, which works for missing children, more than 2,300 children were reported missing last year. The most sensitive areas, where children have gone missing and were found raped and murdered, are Mehmoodabad, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Liaquatabad and Mobin Town.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2013.