Jaranwala protests continue for 2nd day as autopsy report confirms minor girl rape

The protests over the rape and murder of six-year-old girl in Jaranwala continued for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, as the postmortem report confirmed she was raped.

The minor girl had went missing on Sunday afternoon and later, her body bearing torture marks was recovered from fields near Sabzi Mandi at around 9:00 pm on the same day.

The minor's autopsy report mentioned 21 torture marks on her body. However, DawnNewsTV quoted a medico-legal officer on condition of anonymity as saying that the postmortem report "doesn't clearly state whether the child was sexually assaulted or not".

"The report seems to indicate that there were signs of sexual assault," the medico-legal officer said, sharing suspicion that "the police may have wanted to bury the evidence. Most importantly, the report does not state the cause of the child's death".

The FIR stated that an unidentified person raped the minor and then strangled her. No arrests have been made in the case as yet.

Victim's Father

The father of the victim said his seven-year-old daughter had left her house around 2pm on Sunday but did not return.

He said the girl could not be traced despite a desperate search and was later found dead in the fields around 8pm with multiple torture marks.

Protests

Soon after the news of the incident made rounds, the residents of Jaranwala closed shops and markets to protest the rape and murder of the minor. The protest continued for the second day on Tuesday.

The traders and shop owners had called for a shutter-down strike and even the lawyers boycotted the courts seeking justice and demanding arrest of the rapist and killer of six-year-old girl.

Protesters said it seemed like they were living in a jungle where they would have to protect themselves on their own, blaming police inefficiency and local politicians’ apathy for the situation.

Inquiry Committee 

The Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif has formed a committee to investigate the alleged rape cases by paedophiles in Jaranwala. 

The committee has been tasked to expose gangsters involved in the scandal, figure out the number of children and get other details including what action was taken by police when the first case was reported.

Upsurge in rape cases

A number of sexual abuse cases have come to the light after the rape and murder of Kasur’s seven-year-old Zainab.

On Feb 17 , an anti-terrorism court of Lahore awarded four death penalties to the prime suspect, Imran Ali, for raping and murdering the minor in Kasur.

He was also sentenced to life imprisonment and a separate 7-year jail term. The court also asked him to pay a collective fine of Rs 3.1 million.

A week earlier, a student of MA English of Government College University Faisalabad, was abducted and her body was later recovered from a canal. According to doctors, she was subjected to rape and violence before being strangled to death.