Pak minor girl raped, murdered; protests break out

An eight-year-old Pakistani girl was allegedly raped multiple times and then murdered, here.

The minor, who is a resident of the Kasur district of Pakistan's Punjab province, was kidnapped on her way to a tuition centre on January 5. Her body was found in a garbage pile near the Kashmir Chowk after four days, Geo News reported.

According to the initial post-mortem report, the minor was strangled to death after being raped multiple times.

As the incident came to light, crowd took to the streets and staged protests in different parts of the city on Wednesday.

The protestors chanted slogans against the authorities, while staging a demonstration outside the office of DC.

"Crowd outside DCO office in Kasur trying to break gate -- stones pelted - police fired into the air - at least two vehicles burnt -- 2 policemen injured -- city has shut down -- also major roads into city blocked," tweeted, a Pakistani journalist Omar R Quraishi.

The protestors, who are demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits, held protests even on Tuesday, but called off after eight hours when the police assured the suspects would be arrested.

"Absolutely shocking and horrifying incidents of child abuse in #Kasur. Local political leadership seems complicit in turning a blind eye. Punjab government must take immediate action and bring culprits to justice," tweeted another Pakistan journalist Salman Masood.

Taking note of the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued directives to police authorities for an immediate arrest of culprits involved in the heinous crime, the local media reported.

The minister took to Twitter and expressed grief.

"Deeply pained about murder of a 8-year old girl in a child molestation case. Those societies that cannot protect its children are eternally condemned. Not going to rest till the perpetrators of this dastardly act are apprehended & given severest possible punishment under the law," Shehbaz tweeted.

"This was the 9th incident of this nature in Kasur," wrote another Pakistan journalist Ali Salman Alvi.

Kasur made international headlines in 2015 when a gang of paedophiles running a child sex ring was busted, Dawn has reported.

The gang allegedly had abducted and sexually assaulted at least 280 children in the area and blackmailed the families of the victims, and even sold video clips and images of the assault.