News Analysis |
Muhammad Habib, a student of Nursery class, was kidnaped, raped and murdered in Bhakkar, a remote district of Punjab. According to details, minor Habib went to school on 13-12-2018 and did not come back. His father, Muhammad Shakeel, went to nearby police station to register a rapat of the matter. An FIR was registered on the next date (14-12-2018) under section 363 PPC.
Despite the efforts of Habib’s family, he could not be recovered. According to sources, police arrested a suspect but he was released after some interrogation since he was found innocent.
Habib’s relatives believe that the police is not working efficiently. “They just come here and speak to us. They were even not trying to locate Habib when he was kidnapped.
After 11 days the police was able to find the dead body of Habib near Ali Luck School Darya Khan Nashaib. Minpor’s dead body was without a head, arms and upper part of the chest, it was learnt. Samples were collected by the experts and a postmortem was conducted in the District Headquarters Hospital Bhakkar. Our sources have confirmed that during the postmortem it was learnt that sodomy was committed with the victim.
It is worth mentioning here that the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court directed the District and Session Judge Bhakkar on 26th December to present a report on the matter immediately.
GVS approached the uncle of Habib who said they do not have any enmity with anyone. “Habib was a kid. We cannot believe that this has happened to us,” he said. He also mentioned that they do have a doubt that the person who kidnapped and killed their child was not from the outside of the city. “We are sure about one thing that the person is from our own village,” he maintained.
Read more: 100 new cases of child abuse reported in Sheikhupura
GVS also tried to get the version of the police but neither the SI who is looking into the case, not the Public Relation Officer (PRO) were ready to share any information about the case. Ghulam Abbas, an interim PRO, insisted that someone should visit his office so that the matter could be explained.
Habib’s relatives believe that the police is not working efficiently. “They just come here and speak to us. They were even not trying to locate Habib when he was kidnapped. Bhakkar is not a big city. Where was the police when Habib was kidnapped?” one of Habib’s relative said.
Experts believe that the inability of police to properly investigate the cases and collect information encourage the assailants to continue their activities.
It is important to mention here that in the same year on January 4th a six-year-old Zainab Ansari was kidnapped, raped and murdered. The whole country came out on streets and social media and demanded the government to find out her killer.
Later on, after hard work of days, the law enforcement agencies were able to trace out her murderer who was her own neighbor. The man, Imran Ali, had already raped and killed around 11 minors. He was hanged to death in Lahore on 17th October 2018.
There have been many cases of rape and killing of minors across Pakistan. Experts believe that the inability of police to properly investigate the cases and collect information encourage the assailants to continue their activities.
Read more: Child abuse continues unabated in Pakistan
In the present case, media, civil society, and the law enforcement agencies are expected to play their due part in order to find out the murderer of little Habib and to ensure that nobody dares to commit such inhumane crimes in the future.