05:26
Unknown
Karachi
She is lying in the bed clutching a doll in her hand, her glimmering eyes gazing at the visitors – a lot of them.
Doctors say ever since Mala* was brought to the Lyari General Hospital three days ago, she had her first full meal on Friday.
A student of class 1, the five-year-old girl was gang-raped in her village, Ghulam Nabi Shah, in Umerkot on December 2. The doctors and the family of the survivor say she is being hounded by visitors ever since she arrived in the city.
“I repeatedly request men not to gather around her bed, as that will only make her recall the nightmare she has gone through,” said Khadim Hussain, the medical superintendent of the hospital.
But nobody seems to care.
Despite the doctors’ advice, when a VIP comes stamping down the corridors of the hospital with his entourage, it becomes difficult to stop them.
For example, the provincial minister for minority affairs, Mohan Lal, came to visit her on Friday in the presence of this scribe. Around 10 people barged into the ward and stood around her bed. A young man who came with the entourage claiming to be from the “media” even took some pictures of the girl, but was forced by doctors to delete them.
Government officials, media personnel and civil society representatives are hounding the Hindu girl, who belongs to the Meghwar community, but the family of the survivor finds it all pointless.
“Nobody came and asked if she has clothes to wear or enough to eat,” said a hospital staffer wishing not to be named, “everybody is interested in cheap publicity.”
The family of the survivor lamented that the incident was not being highlighted in Karachi, and the mainstream Urdu media appeared clueless about the case. “I must say that the Sindhi media have taken up the case head-on and made the chief minister visit us; but in Karachi, things are very different,” said the girl’s father.
The incident
The fifth child in the family, Mala was playing near her house on December 2 when she was kidnapped and taken to a nearby place by some men who raped her.
In the preliminary investigations, police took sniffer dogs to the crime scene and were led to a gambling den in the neighbourhood run by an influential man in the area named Hashim Mangrio.
“The police registered an FIR after three days, but they have not taken the man into custody even for questioning because he belongs to a political family,” said a family associate requesting anonymity.
The police have arrested a number of people, but the family believes that it is just a face-saving tactic. “Everybody is giving assurances, but nobody is taking any action. Even the chief minister seems helpless. The man we have nominated in the FIR is still roaming free. What can we say?” the father rued.
* The name of the girl has been changed to protect her identity
She is lying in the bed clutching a doll in her hand, her glimmering eyes gazing at the visitors – a lot of them.
Doctors say ever since Mala* was brought to the Lyari General Hospital three days ago, she had her first full meal on Friday.
A student of class 1, the five-year-old girl was gang-raped in her village, Ghulam Nabi Shah, in Umerkot on December 2. The doctors and the family of the survivor say she is being hounded by visitors ever since she arrived in the city.
“I repeatedly request men not to gather around her bed, as that will only make her recall the nightmare she has gone through,” said Khadim Hussain, the medical superintendent of the hospital.
But nobody seems to care.
Despite the doctors’ advice, when a VIP comes stamping down the corridors of the hospital with his entourage, it becomes difficult to stop them.
For example, the provincial minister for minority affairs, Mohan Lal, came to visit her on Friday in the presence of this scribe. Around 10 people barged into the ward and stood around her bed. A young man who came with the entourage claiming to be from the “media” even took some pictures of the girl, but was forced by doctors to delete them.
Government officials, media personnel and civil society representatives are hounding the Hindu girl, who belongs to the Meghwar community, but the family of the survivor finds it all pointless.
“Nobody came and asked if she has clothes to wear or enough to eat,” said a hospital staffer wishing not to be named, “everybody is interested in cheap publicity.”
The family of the survivor lamented that the incident was not being highlighted in Karachi, and the mainstream Urdu media appeared clueless about the case. “I must say that the Sindhi media have taken up the case head-on and made the chief minister visit us; but in Karachi, things are very different,” said the girl’s father.
The incident
The fifth child in the family, Mala was playing near her house on December 2 when she was kidnapped and taken to a nearby place by some men who raped her.
In the preliminary investigations, police took sniffer dogs to the crime scene and were led to a gambling den in the neighbourhood run by an influential man in the area named Hashim Mangrio.
“The police registered an FIR after three days, but they have not taken the man into custody even for questioning because he belongs to a political family,” said a family associate requesting anonymity.
The police have arrested a number of people, but the family believes that it is just a face-saving tactic. “Everybody is giving assurances, but nobody is taking any action. Even the chief minister seems helpless. The man we have nominated in the FIR is still roaming free. What can we say?” the father rued.
* The name of the girl has been changed to protect her identity
Posted in: Karachi News
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