August 19th, 2020
By Abdul Baseer Qalandar
NOWSHERA
An 18 year old man, Syed Wali, has been arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a six year old girl in the Nowshera district. The girl, Seema, was the third victim after two other girls – nine-year-old Minahil and eight-year-old Hoznoor, were found murdered in the city.
Nowshera has recently seen a spike in violence against children. Child rights activists have voiced their concerns for raising awareness and ensuring the protection of children.
According to Najmul Hassan, the district police officer, the accused who was the neighbour of the girl, has confessed to the kidnap and murder of the child. The body of the child was found stuffed in a sack from an abandoned poultry farm two days after the girl had gone missing from her home in Risalpur town in the afternoon of August 15. The family searched the area and had found her body which had been mutilated and bore signs of torture.
There has been a spike in cases of violence in the province as 186 cases were reported last year. In Nowshera, there were 26 cases of violence against children last year. Child rights activists have called for greater public awareness about violence against children.
“The violence is not limited to little girls only as boys are vulnerable too,” said Sana Ahmed, coordinator of the Child Rights Movement of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Voicepk.net.
The CRM should work for raising public awareness as well as ensure measures for the protection of children. She called for a collaboration of government bodies and non-government organizations to work on a three-pronged strategy of awareness, protection, and response. “Without awareness, parents and people will not be able to reach the next stage of protection and response,” Ahmed added.
The provincial assembly’s special committee on the protection of children has proposed that a person who is convicted of child rape must not be given any relief in being given a stern life sentence. The committee has also proposed that in case of the death sentence, the video of the convict’s hanging should be made public.
