World

Zainab murder: Riots in Pakistan's Kasur after child rape and killing

January 10, 2018 4:32 pm

Two protesters have died in rioting over the latest in a series of child murders in the Pakistani city of Kasur.

The body of seven-year-old Zainab was found in a rubbish dump on Tuesday, several days after she went missing. She had been raped and strangled.

Angry demonstrators say the authorities are doing little to stem the spate of abductions, sexual assaults and killings.

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Police in Kasur say there have been 12 similar murders in the past two years.

They say five of them are linked to one suspect who is being hunted by hundreds of officers and DNA samples have been taken from 90 possible suspects.

The two protesters were killed after police shot at an angry crowd attempting to storm a police headquarters in Kasur, about 20km (12 miles) south of Lahore.

Zainab’s murder has sparked outrage across the rest of Pakistan. Well-known film and cricket stars demanded the killer be caught and the military offered support to the police.