IN yet another horrific incident which brought back the tragic memories of child rape victim Zainab from Kasur, another girl fell prey to sexual violence after her body was found in Peshawar on Thursday. A two and a half year old girl identified as Zainab abducted from Charsadda was raped and slain before her body was dumped in Daudzai area of the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In recent times, a surge has been seen in such cases of child abuse which in fact is a scar on our society. We call ourselves an Islamic Republic but are unable to protect our young souls from these beasts who have no regard whatsoever for humanity and even do not spare minor girls. If needful was not done, such despicable incidents will continue to recur and haunt our society. In the latest case, we will urge the provincial government to take strict notice of it and award exemplary punishment to the culprit at the earliest. It is also for the federal and provincial governments to enact legislation envisaging public hanging for those involved in such heinous crimes. Instead of opposing the public hanging, the parliamentarians should take all those steps that protect our children as these child abusers deserve no mercy at all. According to an NGO Sahil, about eight children are abused per day in the country. In 2019, it reported 2846 child abuse cases. In our view, it is only a tip of iceberg as the NGO’s data is based on newspapers reports and there will be many cases which go unreported. Mere promises and lip service will not provide protection to our children and we will have to act fast to save them from further exploitation and abuse. There is also need to create greater awareness amongst the people at different levels about child abuse. There are often chances that the perpetrator might be a family member and the lack of communication gap between parents and their children and their blind trust for family members contributes to child abuse occurring in this society. Thus, the parents and teachers also need to fulfil their responsibility vis-à-vis protection of the children.
