The rape and murder of 10-year-old girl Farishta in Islamabad, an appalling crime, has raised a public outcry for the callousness with which the concerned police officers responded to her distraught family's requests for help. According to reports, Frishta had gone out to play with friends in the morning of May 15. When she did not return home her father and a brother went to the concerned police station to lodge an FIR which was not only refused, they were also humiliated. Telling them go find the child themselves, the Station House Officer (SHO) even suggested that the 10-year-old might have eloped with someone. It was only after the father approached tribal elders in his native Mohmand area, and a local jirga warned the SHO that a petition would be filed against him in the Islamabad High Court that the case was registered, and the little girl's body found the next day, i.e., May 20 in a wooded area.
Yet despite such grave dereliction of duty, in an obvious attempt to protect fellow officers, the high-ups in the police department would not arrest them. It was only after the prime minister took notice of case that the police swung into action, and arrested the SHO and investigation officer of the Shahzad Town police station. He has also ordered suspension of two senior officers in charge of the area, and sought a report from the IGP and DIG Operations about further progress. Three suspects have already been taken into custody. This is not the first outrage of its kind, though. Last year, seven-year-old Zainab was raped and murdered in Kasur, and the police had demonstrated similar apathy until media focus on the case and intervention by the then Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif led to arrest and sentencing of the culprit. Going by that example, soon it will be business as usual. There are countless cases of child abuse that remain unresolved and unreported. The number of reported cases in the last year alone stood at a staggering 3,832. In almost all such instances the children belong to the poor who are powerless to pursue the perpetrators because of the lawmen's insensitive attitude towards them.
There are no easy answers as to how to protect children. Some otherwise sensible people suggest public hanging of evil-doers. That is not only an anathema to civilized sensibilities it is unlikely to serve as a deterrent. Such scenes can only brutalize society and trivialize life. Better policing should help. For that to happen, the department's high-ups need to better their standards of crime prevention and detection.