Pakistani NGO workers perform during an anti-rape protest in Lahore yesterday.
Dozens of people took to the streets yesterday in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, where a 5-year-old rape victim was being treated in a government hospital a day after her attack.
The girl went missing on Friday evening from outside of her house in the area of Mughalpura and was found during the night in the hospital’s parking lot, in critical condition. She was apparently left there after the attack. There are no known suspects.
Angry protesters marched on the city’s Mall Road, carrying banners and cards with demands like “Hang the culprits,” “We are voice of the innocent,” and “We want justice.”
A similar protest was also staged in the central city of Multan, where dozens of people chanted slogans against police inaction and the failure of the government to control crimes.
A doctor from the Services Hospital said the victim was out of danger, but traumatized and not fully conscious.
Police have registered the case and launched a hunt for the culprits.
Federal minister Pervaiz Rashid condemned the incident and said the government “will not spare the people who committed this crime.”
The attack occurred on the same day four men were given the death sentence in neighbouring India for raping a 23-year-old student in a moving bus in December. That victim died weeks later.