Jirga gives 72-hour deadline to arrest culprits in Mardan girl's murder

MARDAN (92 News) – As the law-enforcement agencies failed to arrest the accused in the brutal rape and murder of a four-year-old girl in Mardan, the jirga of elder people in the area has given 72 hours deadline to the government for the arrest the culprits. Mardan district government summoned All Party Conference (APC) on Friday over the brutal rape and murder of a four-year-old girl. As many as 20 suspects have been detained over the horrific incident. Earlier, a four-year-old girl was raped before being strangled to death in Mardan. The body of the victim, who is being named as Asma, was found in a sugarcane field on Sunday in the Jandarpar Gujjar Garhi district of Mardan city, a day after she went missing. Police confirmed that the child died of asphyxiation and were investigating the claim of rape. According to the forensic report, the girl was subjected to violence. The incident comes as the country reels from the recent rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari, a case which ignited widespread protests and stirred uneasy conversations about the sexual abuse of children in a country where the issue is taboo. Zainab's body was discovered in a heap of rubbish last week in the northeastern city of Kasur. She had disappeared on January 4 after leaving her house to go to a tuition centre. Protests calling for justice in various parts of Kasur turned violent, resulting in at least two deaths and several injuries. In 2017, at least 12 similar incidents were reported in the Kasur district alone, local media reported. In the first half of 2017, more than 1,750 cases of child abuse were reported across Pakistan, according to Sahil, a non-governmental organization that works on the issue of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Of the cases in the first six months of last year, 65 percent took place in Pakistan's Punjab province.