Missing children

Children have been going missing in Peshawar only to be found dead days later with incision marks on their bodies

An extremely disturbing trend has emerged in Peshawar in the past month — children have been going missing only to be found dead days later with their bodies carrying incision marks. Bodies have been found along roadsides in dreadful conditions. The first such case was reported last month on Ring Road, where the decomposed body of a four-year-old boy was found with some of his fingers missing. The case did not get much media attention because the child’s identity could not be ascertained. But in another such incident late last month, a five-year-old boy was found dead. He had gone missing three days earlier and was later raped and killed. Similarly, at least five other children have been reported missing so far. All children were less than 10-years-old.

The incidents in Peshawar are also a reminder of the death of a child in Quetta’s Hazara Town in November last year. The child, a student of class one, had gone missing after she stepped out of her house. Her body was later found in a garbage dump near her house with marks of torture. The connecting thread, if any, between the deaths and disappearances in Peshawar has yet to be ascertained, but these incidents are most certainly a cause for alarm. Peshawar is a city closely monitored by law-enforcement agencies and marked by security barriers. In the presence of high security, reports of such murders become an even greater cause of concern. Some of the deceased children belonged to very poor families. Swift access to justice remains a problem for most people in Pakistan and the families of these children may not be able to approach courts or hire lawyers; but class disparity should not determine the fate of these cases. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government must immediately take notice of these murders and assign the most competent officials to investigate them. Whether these killings are isolated crimes or part of a frightening emerging trend, they must be brought to an immediate stop.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th,  2015.

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