3 more cases of sexual assault on minors in 24 hours

FAISLABAD: In the last 24 hours, three more cases of rape invovling children have been filed in the past 24 hours in different police stations in Faislabad.

According to City Tandianwala police station’s first information report  (FIR), a four-year-old had gone out to buy candy from a nearby shop when a man assaulted her. The victim’s parents and some other residents had started looking for her when she did not return home.

The parents heard their daughter screaming and discovered a man trying to assault her in a baithak, the FIR states. Furthermore, two unknown men came and threatened the parents against reporting the incident when they tried to rescue her. The victim’s mother was also abused and beaten in this incident.

A resident had gotten up for prayers in the morning when he heard his daughter screaming, and saw a man trying to rape his 15-year-old daughter in the fields. She had gone into the fields to relieve herself when a man tried to rape her and escaped when her father came.

Another incident took place on August 31 in New Civil Lines, where a shopkeeper was trying to rape a nine-year-old boy and was found by two residents who heard the victim screaming. The child had gone to the shop to buy biscuits, the FIR stated.

The victim’s father had submitted a complaint on the day of the incident, but the police lodged the FIR today.

The country has been shocked after the motorway incident in which a woman was gang-raped on the motorway while travelling with her children. As a result, he organisers of the Aurat March protests have set forth five demands including an end to violence, affirmative steps by the government to uphold rights and ensure justice, accountability of any official who blames the victim, structural and procedural reforms and effective and transparent investigations by the criminal justice system.