Protests erupt after rape, killing of 8-year-old girl in Pakistan

An eight-year-old girl has been burnt alive after being raped in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a brutal incident which sparked protests across the region.

Noor Fatima, who was burnt alive after allegedly being raped, breathed her last at a hospital in the eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday.

Jinnah Hospital spokesman Abdul Jabbar said the girl had received more than 70 percent burns. “She succumbed to her burns today as doctors could not save her life despite efforts.”

She was found in an unconscious state with severe burn injuries hours after she left home on Sunday to buy some sweets from a nearby shop in her native town of Chichawatni in Sahiwal district.

Initially she was shifted to a local hospital from where she was brought to Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital.

Following news of her death, a large number of people held a demonstration and blocked a main road in Chichawatni for several hours to protest against the brutal murder.

After the assurance of police that claimed to have arrested the suspects, the protesters dispersed.

“The police have taken into custody as many as 11 suspects including the owner of the shop the victim went to. A committee, headed by SP (superintendent police) Investigation Naveed Irshad, has been constituted for further investigations,” a police official said.

There has been an upsurge in rape incidents especially in Punjab province this year.

The murder of a seven-year-old girl in Kasur district of Punjab earlier this year shocked the whole nation.

Zainab was taken from near her home in Kasur on January 4 while her parents were on a pilgrimage.

Zainab’s brutalized corpse was found in a trash pile about 100 meters from the family home five days after her disappearance.  

The killing triggered widespread demonstrations in Kasur, Lahore and Karachi.

At least two protesters were killed when police fired into the crowd of demonstrators as they tried to storm a government building in Kasur on January 10.

The demonstrators accused authorities in Punjab province of doing too little to protect children. They also ransacked police offices and buildings.

The protests also prompted a deluge of outrage on social media.The demonstrators accused police of failing to act over the child murders.

The killing also brought to light several other abductions.

According to Sahil, an aid group that works on child protection issues, there were 129 cases recorded in Kasur, including rape and murder, from January to June 2017.

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