Zainab killer hanged
MEMBERS OF THE SLAIN CHILD’S FAMILY HAD CALLED FOR IMRAN ALI TO BE EXECUTED IN PUBLIC BUT IT WAS REJECTED
Girl’s family wanted Ali to be executed in public — a move rejected by Lahore High Court
Pakistani authorities yesterday executed a man convicted of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, in an incident that shocked the country and sparked riots earlier this year.
Chilling CCTV footage broadcast on television following the killing purportedly showed the young girl — Zainab Fatima Ameen — walking hand-in-hand with an unidentified man, in what may have been her last moments.
Imran Ali, 24, was handed four separate death sentences for the rape and murder, which took place in the eastern city of Kasur in January.
In all he confessed to eight attacks on children in the city, including five murders, in a spate of violence that terrorised society.
“He was hanged this morning in the presence of a prison official and the father of the victim,” an official at Lahore’s central prison, where the convict was executed, told AFP.
“His dead body was handed over to his family who took it away for burial,” he said.
Talking to media outside the jail, Zainab’s father said he was satisfied as justice was done and he witnessed the murderer’s execution.
On Tuesday, jail authorities arranged the convict’s last meeting with his family which lasted for some 45 minutes.
Members of Zainab’s family had called for Ali to be executed in public — a move rejected by the Lahore High Court on Tuesday.
The young girl’s murder sparked outrage across Pakistan, with violence erupting in Kasur as thousands swarmed police stations and set fire to politicians’ homes, while Pakistanis across the country took to social media demanding action.
12 rape cases
At least 12 cases of rape and murder have been recorded in the Kasur area in the past two years. Ali confessed to eight of these, but four remain unsolved.
Prior to the recent flood of cases, Kasur was already infamous for sexual abuse, after authorities uncovered a huge paedophile ring in the city in 2015.
Zainab went missing on January 4, shortly after she left home to go to a neighbour’s house. Her parents were away in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah when the incident took place. After relatives reported her missing the police recovered her body on January 9 from a heap of garbage.
Police later collected DNA samples from 1,187 people between January 12 and January 23 to trace the perpetrator.
DNA match
On January 23, police arrested Ali, a neighbour of Zainab’s family, as his DNA matched with the DNA samples collected from the body of the child victim Zainab.
Ali was sentenced to death in February 2018 on the charges of kidnapping, raping and killing Zainab within the jurisdiction of the A-Division police station, Kasur.
The Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and the President also turned down his mercy petition. Anti-terrorism Court (ATC)-I Judge Sajjad Ahmad on October 12 issued a black warrant for Ali, ordering his execution on October 17.
Superintendent Kot Lakhpat Jail approached the ATC-I judge, saying that all the appeals of the convict were rejected and therefore black warrant be issued for the hanging of the prisoner.
A day before the execution, a Lahore High Court division bench dismissed a plea filed by Zainab’s father, Ameen Ansari, for a public execution of Ali.
Ali was involved in eight other similar cases, where six victims died and only two survived.
He [Imran Ali] was hanged this morning in the presence of a prison official and the father of the victim. His dead body was handed over to his family who took it away for burial.”
Official at Lahore’s central prison