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Children bear no arms to defend themselves, and given their tender age they often fall prey to the demons' viciously contrived inducements. Once trapped, they are sexually abused and murdered. The demons wouldn't leave them alive to tell the tale. The recent recovery of three bodies of children in Chunian, Punjab, who went missing, one after the other, over the last two months, is indeed very disturbing, but certainly not the first and, apprehensively, the last such horrifying incident. Over the years, this Islamic republic has turned out to be a rich harvest for the child hunters. They are on the loose, and there is not much of evidence in hand suggesting that they would give up on their devilish pastime. Moreover, there is not much of hope that the so-called long arm of law would succeed in securing our children against these voracious demons. In fact, their number is on the rise. A report by the NGO Sahil has revealed that the reported cases of child abuse in Pakistan increased 11 percent in 2018, with more than 10 children suffering some kind of abuse every day. And, alarmingly, cases of sexual abuse of children specifically witnessed a rise of 33 percent as compared to those reported in 2017.

Conclusively, deterrence against child abuse is not working, and it is not working not only because the law to deal this crime falls short of its raison d'etre. It is because any effective administrative management to lay hand on the demons is out of gear. Otherwise, how come children in Chunian were found missing one by one, although police were duly informed? The corpses of the abused children were located only when they were beyond recognition. And, now when an enraged mob pelted the police station with stones, shut down shops and roads the police have come up with information that they have detained several suspects and will be carrying out DNA tests. The provincial authorities promised - what they always do to manage the agitated crowds - to take 'stern' action (read transfer or suspension) against the concerned police officers. Do the people of Chunian have to raise the ante of protest as high as they did leading to the hanging of Imran, the serial killer of Kasur? No doubt, the money launderers should be brought to book and the corrupt officials sent packing, but no less crucial is to have a special law and its strict application to ensure that these demons are quickly dislodged and dispatched to hell. There should be special courts to deal with child abuse cases, a stiff timeline and only one-appeal opportunity. All in all, their nemesis should serve as effective deterrence.

The childhood is once-a-lifetime chance; it doesn't come back. But what one goes through in childhood keeps visiting him subconsciously for all the time to come. Even if others don't talk about it to him it hurts him as a dreadful dream. No wonder, the children of Kasur who were videotaped by merchants of human dignity have left the places they lived; they felt too humiliated to be part of the people they knew. Almost as a routine, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has expressed his annoyance over the incident and sent law minister and some officials to meet the bereaved families in Chunian. But he should go further. Kasur has been plagued by such shameful incidents over the last few years. The rape-cum-murder of Zainab Ansari in January 2018 was the 12th such incident to have occurred within a 10-kilometre radius of Kasur over a period of one year. Is it because residents of that cursed piece of land are ill-fated or that the watchman is in cahoots with the demons. Whatever be the case, it is incumbent upon the local police to ensure that the child-killers don't come back.



Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

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