Buried under national terrorism and the cricket plethora a very tragic story is being ignored by the press. There is some coverage on TV but print media is not telling much.
A young girl Abeera, having come from Sialkot died under mysterious circumstances. She was enrolled in a private university but was more interested in becoming a model than studies. She is one of millions of girls who come to Lahore to study. Though I was a teacher while I resided in a girl’s hostel, the young un-chaperoned girls who lived there gave me nightmares.
These hostels are breeding grounds for corruption. But let’s not transgress from the main issue, why is her murder being accepted as a common crime and nothing is being done? What happens to the three who have been booked in her case? Will they all go free after paying a corrupt police?
Who is responsible for our daughters’ and sisters’ honour? A Muslim country where women are not safe? Why has Pakistan become such a jungle where every day so many small children are raped, molested, burnt and killed? While the criminals roam free? Someone will have to take responsibility.
First I would like to request all parents to visit the hostel their girls go to live in and then monitor their movements and their life. These are harsh times; these are worrying times, when no one can be trusted. The parents have to be the first safety net for a child. Second is our police, they must have some conscious, they also have children, they should be more vigilant and keep an eye on any kind of transgression from the norm happening.
I would not like it if someone close to me was murdered and no action was taken. We should have better trained and more advance technology to catch criminals. Our politicians should give up some of their personal luxuries and donate the money for better forensic laboratories and a criminal data base.
We should all act as vigilantes. Why have we withdrawn and keep ourselves out of trouble by not acting even if we see a crime happening in front of us? We have to be more heroic and better humans. We have to practice and show better moral values that what we have been displaying.
I as a parent would like to ask all parents to make a communal club in their areas which can keep children out of trouble. For, what can hurt one worst than a molested and murdered child? What can be worst nightmare come true than a young daughter murdered? We should be a strong steel wall that bars any criminals from entering our surroundings and hurting our children.
These criminals have no horns and wear no horrible masks but roam as normal people among us. We have to be vigilant and observant to find them and weed them out from among us. May every child be safe in my country!