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I stopped reading newspapers, watching TV or even using social media but what to do? The pictures of innocent Zainab do not stop flashing before my eyes. There are screams exploding inside my eardrum, voices that won’t die down, tearing apart my heart into a million pieces. What was my crime? Why was I killed so heinously? What did I do to deserve a painful death lying in heaps of garbage?
These voices are nowadays, rampaging the souls of the millions of Pakistani’s who still possess a conscience except of course those who have ruled this country for the past many decades i.e. the Sharif brothers and their henchmen. But we all have felt helpless and without hope since our government is unwilling to do what’s necessary at this point – to make an example out of the other perpetrators in jail, by hanging them!
The whole country is in a state of shock and rage. The same condition in which the emotional crowd came out in support of Zainab and got fired upon. Two more people left this world leaving their families grieving. The policemen who fired upon the orders of the PMLN government were soon arrested, resulting in a few more families getting to the brink of destruction. The monster who took one life destroyed so many households in one go!
Sexual violence against children and subsequent murder remain to be a plague for almost all societies worldwide. The statistics are such that, they can shake you up to the core. According to reports, some 19.7% female children and 7.9% male children. This is a psychological problem not influenced or triggered by either one’s education, financial conditions or religion. You will agree after reading the below-mentioned statistics.
According to UK’s CSA – an NGO, in one of the developed countries of the world i.e. South Africa every three minutes, a child faces sexual violence. While India tops the list of the countries where children face the worst sexual violence. In 2001, 2113 cases were reported, which increased by 336% to 7112 in 2011. Indian newspapers and publications are rampant with minor rape/killings. Harare, Zimbabwe happens to be the worst city for children. Just in Harare, 30,000 cases were reported in the last four years.
Now, let’s look at the biggest champion of human rights and democratic values in the world – the United Kingdom. According to NSPCC – an organization dedicated to the prevention of violence against children just between 2012-13, 18915 cases of sexual abuse and torture were reported in England. 3200 cases are reported every year in Bangladesh. While in Pakistan, the rate is 2500 children per year. In Afghanistan, every year staggering 18,000 children face sexual torture every year.
Even in an advanced country such as Russia which is one of the biggest economies in the world, every year 10,000-11,000 cases against children are reported. While in America, the grand superpower, according to a survey everyone in 4 women and everyone in 6 men has faced sexual violence before reaching puberty. You would think that a country like Australia which is well known for its law and order and whose citizens are considered to be one of the most harmless, law-abiding would be better. But, actually, Australia is worse than the third world Zimbabwe with 50,000 cases every year.
You will have noticed by now that, there is a huge diversity in the trend of minor rapes worldwide. Countries representing almost every continent in the world have been included in these statistics, even those who are supposed to be the bastion of child safety and police others in such matters. Ironically, the developed countries are the worst when it comes to child abuse. However, what they have in common is the fact that none implement strict punishments for the perpetrators including Pakistan.
The stories pertaining to the long history of minor rape is such that one may find himself unable to speak. They include Columbia’s Louis Granato responsible for killing 148 children but sentenced to only 30 years in prison. Denmark’s Dagner Johane Email who killed 25 children including one her own. Ludhiana, India’s Mahinder Singh from whose house, remains of 20 girls were discovered in 2005, but later his death sentence was converted into a life sentence. Another horrific story is that of Fedrovich Kach who was a criminal investigator in the Russian police and murdered countless children between 1980-2005. After getting caught in 2006, he confessed to killing more than 100 girls but was given a life sentence.
The latest addition to this list is, Australia’s Peter Scully who was in prison till 2017 but has not been given any sentence up till now. His horrific crimes included, for instance, hanging a five-year-old upside down, while he along with accomplices raped and killed her. His victims also include an 18-month-old baby. Guess what? He escaped capital punishment although being responsible for the rape and murder of more than a dozen girls, filming it and selling each for $10,000 according to his own confession.
Pakistan too has seen a surge in such sexual violence in recent years. Children are more unsafe than ever in today’s Pakistan. The reason? None other than the fact that the perpetrators hardly ever face the music. They get away with their political influence, the police’s incompetence or the inability of the bereaved to pursue the case further owing to financial difficulties. Thus, we get to see increasingly more and more Zainab’s. Just a day ago, another dead body of a minor Asma was found in Mardan.
The only way to deal with this surge in minor rape is the implementation law that already exists in lieu of minor rape. You would be surprised to know, that within the past year, no convicted child rapist has been given the capital punishment. Once the hangings initiate, fear will surely set in the hearts of the pedophiles making them think a million times before they victimize another child! And if we can’t do that, perhaps we should stop showing meaningless concern for Zainab or grieve, because there would be no point in doing so!
Some may call it barbaric but how can the purging of a barbarian be barbarism itself? It makes no sense. Some NGOs and their activists shamelessly talk about human rights when it comes to hanging child rapists. But, human rights are for humans. Are people capable of raping and leaving a dead child on garbage, deserving of being considered human? They should remember, they are only calling for the right to end one more innocent life, to pillage another Zainab!
