School guard held in Karachi after attempted rape of minor
The five-year-old girl informed her parents of the alleged attempt, after which the suspect was arrested
January 12, 2018
KARACHI: A guard of a private school in the Ibrahim Hyderi area of the city was arrested on Friday after a five-year-old girl informed her parents of his alleged attempt to rape her.
The minor’s parents said she told them about the incident when she returned home from school on Thursday.
Her family reached the school today and beat up the guard in question, before informing and handing him over to the authorities, police officials said.
DIG East Sultan Khawaja confirmed that the suspect was arrested and was being interrogated regarding the alleged incident.
Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of the issue and directed DIG East to submit a detailed inquiry report on the incident.
The incident comes at a time of heated debate on child sexual abuse incidents taking place countrywide, after seven-year-old Zainab was found raped and murdered in Kasur earlier this week.
The incident triggered widespread protests and condemnation from all quarters, while sparking the need for child abuse awareness programmes in the country.
Geo News anchor Shahzeb Khanzada, in Thursday’s show ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, urged all parents to talk, without delay, to their children about child abuse awareness and the need to inform immediately if they ever experience or witness any incident of abuse.
Citing statistics from social awareness organisation Aahung, Shahzeb informed that as many as 47 per cent of child sexual abuse incidents are perpetrated by the relatives of the child. Around 43 per cent of the perpetrators are acquaintances of the child, while only seven per cent are strangers.
According to research, females on average are more likely than their male counterparts to report abuse to their parents.
Urging all parents to trust their children with no one, Shahzeb appealed to parents to particularly educate their children to not place blind trust in their relatives, teachers, friends and any other acquaintances.
The latest incident in Karachi’s Ibrahim Hyderi area, where the minor girl reported the suspect’s inappropriate behaviour to her parents, is a step in the right direction and underscores the importance of media and civil society in making possible an all-encompassing child sexual abuse awareness campaign.
