Protectors Turn Child Predators in Pakistan
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LAHORE, Mar 4 (OneWorld) - People in Pakistan are protesting against the rise in crimes against children, particularly by policemen, who escape punishment due to official collusion.
According to data released by the nongovernmental organization (NGO), Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), last year 623 children were murdered, 383 raped and 277 sodomized as against 443 murders, 149 rapes and 219 cases of sodomy in 2001. Among the most sensational cases in the recent past was last month's rape and murder of two minor girls by policemen in the southern port town of Karachi. The decomposed bodies of five-year-old Hajra and Sassi, seven, were found near a Karachi police station on February 23. Reports say when the two children went missing on February 20, the police initially declined to register a case. Hajra's father Shabbir Ahmed says he went to the police station many times to lodge a complaint, but the police shooed him away. "We were ignored because we are poor," he protests. The Sindh governor then intervened and issued orders for the arrest of the head of the police station and three other policemen. The governor's move miraculously produced results. A case of murder was registered against four policemen. Deputy inspector general of police Mohammad Akbar says seven police officials are being questioned in the double murder. "They are not arrested so far. We have detained them and are grilling them," he points out. But the odds are heavily stacked against an early breakthrough. The chief of LHRLA, Zia Ahmed Awan, says in most cases where policemen are culpable, their colleagues sabotage investigations, leaving room for the accused to walk. Awan blames the problem on the fact that criminal elements have joined the police force. Scores of policemen have criminal cases against them. In an expression of public anger, last week thousands of protestors hit the streets of Karachi, stoning police stations to vent their anger. The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) staged a big demonstration against the killing of the girls in Karachi Wednesday. Sassi's father, laborer Sher Gul, is devastated. "If policemen, who are supposed to provide security to people, commit such heinous crimes, where should people look for security," he asks. In Islamabad, people demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hyat. Sindhi party, the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), mourned the deaths on Wednesday. JSQM chief Bashir Qureshi announced a three-day mourning in the province. But the mourning after, Pakistan remains an unsafe place for children. Earlier this month, 11-year-old Saira was raped and murdered in Karachi. There was no breakthrough in the case, until the media made a big issue of the shoddy investigation. This compelled the Inspector General to ask his men to arrest the killers within 48 hours. Finally, an arrested suspect allegedly confessed to the crime. Again, in 2003, a young boy set himself afire after being sodomized by policemen. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the case received considerable publicity, but no decisive action was taken against the criminals. According to LHRLA, in 2003 over 1,000 cases of physical and 826 cases of sexual abuse were reported in the media against children. There were 66 extremely brutal cases of rape or sodomy in which the girl or boy was also killed subsequently. The data shows 1,087 child abuse cases from the eastern Punjab province, 588 cases in Sindh province, 101 in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and 50 cases in the western Balochistan province. A member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-QA) from Sindh, Nisar A. Memon, believes that to rebuild people's confidence, exemplary punishment should be meted out to those who raped and murdered Sassi and Hajra, especially because the police committed the crime. Many political and religious parties in Pakistan feel the provincial government "has lost control over the police force." Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) accuses the government of safeguarding killers. "It's a pity that our rulers are protecting such criminals," says the party's Sindh president Imdad Chandio. But Imtiaz Shaikh, a leader of the ruling PML-QA, says the government will take stern punitive measures against the culprits. Shaikh, also a provincial minister, assures that the government will rein in the policemen who are misusing powers. The coordinator of the NGO, War Against Rape, Amina Mehwish elaborates that the survivors, the term she uses for the victims, develop psychological disorders when they fail to get support from society, parents and relatives. Based on experience in handling rape cases, Mehwish says the survivors recover after getting moral support from relatives and society. She stresses the need for imparting training to medico-legal officers, as they do not show sympathy with the survivors in 99 percent of rape cases. Often these officers believe the survivor must have had consent in the act. Stresses social activist Waqas Mehmood Khan, "Violence against children is a very sensitive issue and it's the prime responsibility of the government and society to adopt measures for the protection of future generations." |
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