Kasur back in spotlight as remains found of 3 minor boys killed after suspected sexual assault – Pakistan

The remains of three minor children that the police suspect were killed after being sexually assaulted were found Tuesday in the Kasur district of Punjab, which has attracted international attention for recurring incidents of child sexual abuse in recent years.

According to police, two of the children were reported missing in Kasur's Chunian tehsil last month, while the third disappeared two days ago. At the direction of a local worker, the police found the body of one of the children and the skeletal remains of the other two in a deserted place in the area of ​​the Chunian Industrial Estate.

It was not immediately clear how the three children were killed, but Kasur District Police Officer (DPO) Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani said police suspected the victims were sexually assaulted before they were killed. He added that it will become more evident once the postmortem examination of the remains is completed.

Read: Is there something wrong with Kasur?

Residents in Chunian said DawnNewsTV that five children, one of them 12 years old and another eight years old, had disappeared in the area in recent months; Now the remains of three of them have been found.

The development comes one day after dozens of people organized a protest demonstration in Kasur against what they called the failure of the Chun police to recover three missing children and curb the incidence of child abduction. They had dispersed after the local administration assured them of the resolution of the cases.

Police today collected evidence of the area while an investigation into their deaths was initiated.

DPO Qaisrani said three teams had been formed to investigate the cases and that a mobile laboratory from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency had also arrived in the area to collect evidence. He said they hoped the culprits would be arrested within a day or two.

Punjab Prime Minister Usman Buzdar realized the death of the children and requested information from the head of the provincial police. The Punjab police inspector general, Arif Nawaz Khan, ordered the Kasur OPD to submit a report on the incident.

The deaths are an awkward reminder of the horrible rape and murder of six-year-old girl Zainab Ansari, a case that caused outrage and protests across the country after the boy's body was found in a pile of garbage in Kasur in January 2018.

The heinous nature of the crime had caused immediate disturbances in Kasur, in which two people died, while #JusticeforZainab became a war cry for the end of violence against children.

Imran Ali, who was convicted of the rape and murder of Zainab, was executed nine months after the boy's death.

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When asked why cases of child abuse continue to appear repeatedly in Kasur, DPO Qaisrani said it was necessary to "study the broader aspect" of why these incidents still take place despite the fact that the murderer and rapist of Zainab was executed for his crimes.

"The police are doing their part and will continue to do so, but we will also have to verify the other (social) factors," he added while speaking with DawnNewsTV.

More than 10 abused children every day

A report by the NGO Sahil revealed earlier this year that reported cases of child abuse increased by 11 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, with more than 10 children suffering some form of abuse every day in Pakistan last year.

The report, titled & # 39; Cruel Numbers 2018 & # 39 ;, found that cases of child sexual abuse specifically witnessed a significant increase of 33{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} compared to cases reported in 2017.

Related: Here we show you how to talk with your children about sexual abuse.

One of the authors of Sahil's previous report, Mamtaz Gohar, had told him Dawn that although the cases of child abuse were expected to occur as a result of Zainab's rape and murder case, they had unfortunately increased.

"However, another opinion is that Zainab's murder case gave the families of the victims the courage to speak instead of hiding incidents of sexual abuse. The good thing is that, shortly after that case, a change has been noticed drastic in the attitude and behavior of families towards such cases, "he said.