The illusion that Pakistan does not actively hate its women and children keeps shattering everyday. While micro-aggressions are an everyday occurrence, heinous crimes are being reported with more regularity. Recently, yet another incident has come to light regarding extreme sexual violence toward a child and her mother in Sindh.

4 year old Alisha and her mother were abducted, tortured and gang raped for several days in Kashmore, Sindh

It is reported that the woman was lured by the rapists with promises of being offered a job and then abducted alongside her daughter. The young girl is reported to be in the hospital and in a critical condition.

Soon after the incident was reported, a video began circulating on social media where a little girl, alleged to be Alisha, was telling a woman about what happened, while sitting with a few police officers.

Of course, Pakistanis are expressing their usual spectrum of emotions, from grief to shock, over the brutality experienced by Alisha and her mother in Kashmore

Many are going back to their usual barbaric demand for “public hanging” over the case of Alisha and her mother in Kashmore

It has been widely believed by experts, psychologists and researchers that more than public hangings, the actual deterrent would be making sure that convictions actually happen in such cases. The usual practice in Pakistan is that thousands of such cases happen without fear of retribution because criminals know that apart from outrage over a few reported cases, nothing really is going to happen in terms of actual legal proceedings.

People are also applauding the Assistant Sub-Inspector Muhammad Bakhsh who is reported to have caught the criminals using his own daughter as bait

They are stunned at the claims that ASI Bakhsh put his own child’s life on the line in order to rescue the survivors of the incident.

Pakistanis are pleading the Prime Minister to ensure we don’t have to see more cases like Alisha and her mother in Kashmore

https://twitter.com/Jnt_kht/status/1326766141415563271

So many are sharing how they’ve lost hope in the justice system of this country, yet again, after seeing this case

Others are lamenting the state of affairs where nothing changes for the common man in purana or naya Pakistan

According to the spokesman Sindh Government, Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, the main culprit has already been arrested

It’s just been a little over a month since the last time Pakistanis outraged over the rape of a young child. It’s also been a little over two months since the brutal “Motorway rape incident” which revealed the disgusting mentality that senior officials in the very forces that are supposed to protect people, have toward women. Outrage by Pakistanis, demand for justice and social media trends now appear to be a common occurrence with little to no action to conclusively resolve the lack of convictions in such cases by the authorities in charge.

Cases of rape and sexual violence aren’t increasing. They’re just being reported more in the media. Several hundreds, if not thousands of cases, go unreported everyday because the justice system does not help provide a safe space for women and children to get justice.

All this begs one question, do we really, honestly, still believe Pakistan is a safe place for its women and children?