Kasur : A city or a hub of child abuse?
It hasn’t even been an year since seven-year-old Zainab Ansari was raped and killed but Kasur is back to its ways. The horror in Kasur continues as a body of a minor boy who went missing a day earlier and the skeletal remains of two other boys were found from the same area in Kasur’s Chunian on Tuesday.
The Police says that they registered five complaints of missing children who have gone missing from various areas of Kasur in the last three months. The one was identified as the boy whose body was found the other day.
The skeletal remains of two other boys which were found are yet to be identified. Their remains have been sent to a lab for testing, police says. Blood samples have been taken from the parents of all missing children for DNA test to determine if the remains are of the any five missing children.
The children whose bodies have been found were believed to be aged between eight and 10 years.
“My son is missing for a month and there is no development. Police did nothing. They just keep saying we are investigating,” said the father of one of the missing boy.
But this is not the first time. In 2015, a child pornography ring was exposed, where more than 200 children of the Hussain Khanwala village were being filmed. The children and their families kept quiet out of fear and pressure from the culprit. Eventually the matter disappeared in just a few days like nothing was happened but since then Kasur has been associated with child sexual abuse.
Over 700 cases of child sexual abuse were registered from Kasur since 2015 with total of 451 cases in the year 2015 and total 141 cases in 2016.
After Zainab’s case, people were hopeful that these monstrous activities would stop and their children will not become prey of such animals anymore, but why this is not coming to an end? Why children and parents are still suffering? Who should be blamed? The questions will always remain unanswered.
One could think four prominent reasons behind the rapid increasing rate of child sex abuse in Kasur.
1- Irresponsible Investigation System
It starts with the non-serious and careless attitude of the police officials of the area but after they lodge FIR, the information they enter remains incomplete. After the case is presented in court, loopholes in the system leads to increasing number of culprits being acquitted.
2- No Child Protection Awareness
Child protection awareness is given no importance by parents and families in the area. Strangers and distant acquaintances were easily trusted upon with children.
3- Judicial System
The lengthy judicial process was one of the reasons not only behind why few cases are reported, but also weakly prosecuted, leading to more and more culprits being acquitted by courts.
4- No Awareness of Medical Examination
Parents and families were not fully aware of the importance of medical examinations of the victim which can help in providing evidence against the abuser.
