Murder of Zainab Ansari
Zainab Amin Ansari was a seven-year-old Pakistani girl who was abducted in her hometown of Kasur, Punjab while she was on her way to Quran recitation classes on 4 January 2018. Her body was found discarded five days later within a garbage disposal site near the city of Lahore on 9 January 2018; an autopsy report disclosed that she had been extensively raped and tortured before being strangled to death. Her rapist and murderer, 24-year-old Imran Ali, was arrested and identified as a serial killer responsible for at least seven previous rapes and murders of prepubescent girls in the region. Her case was taken by one of the renowned lawyer of Pakistan Mr Aftab Ahmed Bajwa, Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan and assisted by Mr Hamza Khalid Farani, Advocate.
Ansari's murder incited widespread protests and outrage throughout Pakistan, and ultimately led to the passage of Pakistan's first national child safety law, known as the Zainab Alert Bill. The bill directs that any individual found guilty of child abuse faces a minimum mandatory sentence of life imprisonment and also stipulates instigating legal action against any law enforcement officials who cause any unnecessary delay in investigating such cases within two hours of a child being reported as missing.
Event
The incident occurred when Ansari's parents were in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, while she was temporarily living with her uncle. On 4 January 2018, she went missing while on her way to a Quran tuition class near her home. Her uncle, Muhammad Adnan, lodged a complaint with the Kasur District police office. CCTV video footage discovered by Ansari's family without any aid from local authorities showed her accompanied by an unknown bearded man in white clothes and a jacket, holding her hand and walking on Peerowala Road in Kasur. Her body was later discovered at a garbage disposal site on Shahbaz Khan Road on 9 January 2018. An autopsy report confirmed that she had been raped, sodomised and tortured before being strangled to death.Protests
Prior to the rape and murder of Ansari, the province of Punjab had seen several pedophilia scandals, with local law enforcement accused of inaction and/or cover-up efforts. Following Ansari's murder, protests were held in many major cities across Pakistan, including the capital of Islamabad, which saw candlelight vigils, vehicles burned, roads blockaded and several clashes between protestors and police; two people were killed after they had broken into a police station. Four policemen who allegedly opened fire at protesters in Kasur were reportedly arrested and under investigation.Reactions
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, tweeted:Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai wrote on Twitter: "This has to stop. and the concerned authorities must take action."
Imran Khan tweeted: "The condemnable & horrific rape & murder of little Zainab exposes once again how vulnerable our children are in our society."
Islamic cleric Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a political rival of the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, "demanded the local government be replaced, saying it has 'no right to remain in power after the killing of Zainab Ansari.
Kiran Naz, a Samaa TV news anchor, hosted a 10 January bulletin with her young daughter on her lap as an act of protest. At the Sindh Assembly, artist celebrities Ayesha Omer, Nadia Hussain, Faysal Qureshi and others met on 12 January with Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza, demanding laws and justice to prevent such tragedies in the future. Mahira Khan, Ali Zafar, Imran Abbas, Mawra Hocane, and Saba Qamar, as well as former cricket players Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar tweeted about the incident, condemning the brutal rape and murder, while also trending the hashtag #JusticeforZainab.