May 15th, 2019, Farishta Nabi had gone missing. "The girl went out of her house to play with her friends on May 15, but didn't return"
When fearing that she might've been abducted, her father, Gul Nabi, tried to report the matter to the police, the police refused to file a First Information Report (FIR). He visited the police station multiple times to at least have an FIR filed. Each time he was mistreated and the report was not filed.
The Station House Officer (SHO) and the investigation officer (IO) went so far and accused the 10-year-old of eloping with the man who later abused and murdered her.
After FOUR days of protests did the police file an FIR.
On the fifth day (May 20th), in the outskirts of Islamabad, the local police found the body of a girl who matched the description her father had provided.
According to a report by the child rights organisation Sahil that gathered data from newspapers only: a total number of 3832 cases have been reported in newspapers during the year 2018.
These cases have increased by more than 11% as compared to the figure 3445 recorded in the year 2017. More than 10 children have been abused per day during the year 2018.
This year total reported cases, 86% of cases were registered with the police, whereas in 56 cases police refuse to register the case, and 39 cases were unregistered with police. While in 11% cases the case registration status was not mentioned in newspapers.
You would think that in a civilised society, events like these would spring everyone into action. That there would be protests and marches for the children who have been raped, molested or otherwise assaulted.
This is not a civilized society.
In February, a seven-year-old girl was and killed by a milkman in Faisalabad. In March, a fourth-grade student was raped and in Karachi. In April, an 11-year-girl who worked as a maid was found in a swimming pool at the house of her employer in Lahore. Police later arrested the employer on charges of rape and murder. In the same month, a 13-year-old girl in Shujabad was by a seminary teacher, while an eight-year-old girl was raped and in Dera Ghazi Khan. Neha Pervaiz, a 15-year-old Christian teenager, was raped and a Muslim man in Karachi earlier this month. These are not even close to all the reported cases and are all from this year alone.
These children await justice.
*Those phrases or sentences italicised are quotes from the following articles.
- https://tribune.com.pk/story/1977716/1-family-protests-police-inaction-farishta-rape-murder-case/
-https://sahil.org/cruel-numbers/
- https://www.dawn.com/news/1473645
- https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/83338/justiceforfarishta-is-proof-we-did-nothing-after-demanding-justiceforzainab/
