In Asma and Zainab’s case, there are no winners, only losers

This past month, two tragic cases came into the spotlight. Two school-going girls, ages 7 and 4, were kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered.

In Punjab, Zainab, 7, breathed her last somewhere within the winding streets of Kasur. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Asma, 4, never made it out alive from a sugarcane field.

We, the people of Pakistan, cried, outraged and then hung our heads in shame. While, our political leaders, our representatives, took it as another opportunity to take pot shots at each other. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah proudly announced the DNA results of Asma’s killer. An announcement that should have been made by KP’s investigating agencies. Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, on the other hand, repeatedly slung mud at the Punjab police for taking too long to find Zainab’s killer. This even though the chief minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif had tweeted on January 17, “If our Zainabs and Asmas cannot stop us from playing sordid political games and unite us for the safety and bright future of our children, NOTHING ELSE WILL.” (sic) Yet, accusations flew from either side.

Two children died, mercilessly. There are no winners here, only losers.

The two cases are not very different from one another. In both cases, provincial police officials failed to solve the mystery on their own and find the killer. Punjab had to enlist the help of intelligence agencies to find Imran, Zainab’s murderer. While, in Asma’s case, the KP government sought out the help of Punjab’s Forensic Science Agency to confirm its suspicion about a suspect.

A common practice around the world is that right after a crime scene is discovered, it is cordoned off for further investigation and to prevent loss of any evidence. This didn’t happen in Asma or Zainab’s case. Also, while KP urgently needs a functioning forensic lab of its own, there is no harm in it cooperating with other provinces to solve a crime.

In Kasur, Zainab’s killer, Imran Ali, raped and strangled to death eight children before being caught, yet Punjab’s police remained clueless and unwilling, it seems, to act unless pressurized to do so.

In most such cases, I have covered, when worried parents do show up at a police station they are told by officials to go back home and look for the child in the neighbourhood. This leads to a delay in the investigation by two or three days, wasting precious time.

Even with the CCTV footage in hand, the Punjab police arrested Zainab’s killer and then released him under pressure from the family.

A crime is a crime, regardless of where it is committed. Now is the time to unite, to protect our children and our future. Politics can be done later.

Ansari is the bureau chief of Geo News in Lahore 

Note: The views expressed in the article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Geo News or the Jang Group.