Crimes against children: Family, neighbours of murdered child protest

Police say they have picked up a suspect and are interrogating him

FAISALABAD:

Scores of people thronged Jaranwala Road on Sunday and staged a demonstration protesting against the rape and murder of a child.

The protesters carried banners and placards and blocked the main Jaranwala-Faisalabad Road for traffic. They also burned tyres and set up blockades.

Talking to journalists, Amjad Lateef, one of the protesters, said six-year-old Waseem, son of Muhammad Umair, a poor daily wage earner, was abducted from his house in the Jaranwala Road area on October 23.

“We reported the incident to the police, but they have made no headway in the case…their touts demanded a bribe to start investigations,” he said.

He said neighbours and the child’s family had combed the area but could not find the boy. The kidnappers had raped the child and strangled him, he said. They had later thrown the body in a ground nearby where some passers-by found it.

The protesters shouted slogans against the police. They said the policemen they had dealt with on the case had been callous and indecent. They demanded immediate arrest of the culprits and the policemen who had failed to recover the child.

The traffic on Jaranwala-Faisalabad Road was blocked for hours. A heavy police contingent arrived at the scene and tried to placate the protesters but they refused to budge.

Later, a superintendent arrived at the scene and told the protesters that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had taken notice of the brutal killing and had directed the Faisalabad regional police officer to submit a report on the incident.

The demonstrators then called off the protest and dispersed. When contacted, a police spokesman confirmed that the chief minister had taken notice of the incident. He said the RPO had constituted a team to investigate the matter on an emergency basis and arrest the culprits.

He said the police team had picked up a suspect from the neighbourhood and were interrogating him. “We are certain that we will be able to arrest the culprits in 24 hours.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2015.