HARIPUR: The post-mortem of a five-year-old girl has revealed her rape before the body’s disposal in an unused well here. The post-mortem report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said the girl was sexually assaulted, while her both thigh bones were fractured. It said that the cause of death was excessive bleeding, which might have occurred before the girl was thrown into the well. The post-mortem was conducted under the supervision of
Child Rights in Focus
WHERE does one begin? The mind goes first to the parents of the 14 newborns who died early on January 26 in the Mother and Child Health Ward of Islamabad’s Pims Hospital. The heart falters at the sheer scale of their loss. Their grief is shared across the country by people still struggling to comprehend how a tragedy of this magnitude was allowed to happen, and who must be held responsible. Multiple explanations have been
ISLAMABAD: The reception area outside the building that housed Pims’ Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Centre has turned into a memorial, where parents, relatives and well-wishers of the newborns who perished in the tragic fire hold vigil in memory of the dearly departed. But amid the mourning, there is one tiny corpse for whom no one weeps; an abandoned baby with no name, and no family to claim him. The two-month old — who
KARACHI: The Sindh School Education and Literacy Department has directed all privately managed schools in the province to immediately implement comprehensive fire safety measures. The directive, issued by the Additional Director Registration here on August 26, says, “In view of the recent fire incidents and in order to prevent any untoward occurrence, it is hereby made mandatory for all privately managed schools to adopt and strictly implement comprehensive fire safety protocols with immediate effect,
KARACHI: The Student Attendance Monitoring and Redress System (SAMRS) has been extended to 3,647 government schools as part of the provincial government’s ongoing digital reforms. The system, introduced on the directives of Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah, is aimed at digitally maintaining students’ attendance and academic records, including academic performance, examination results and school transfers. According to a press release issued here on Thursday, as many as 3,481 government schools had been
ISLAMABAD: Fourteen infants were killed in a fire that broke out in the gynaecology ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) early on August 26. What has happened so far: 14 babies die after fire erupts in ward; initial reports say spark erupted from AC, blaze spread due to oxygen points Bereaved families decry rescue teams arrived “too late”; witnesses report locked doors Health secretary removed; inquiry panel formed on PM’s orders; separate fact-finding committee constituted Health Minister Mustafa
HARIPUR: Haripur District Police Officer (DPO) Shafiullah Gandapur said on August 25 that the force had arrested four suspects in connection with the alleged abduction, sexual assault and murder of a five-year-old girl. Addressing a press conference, the DPO expressed sorrow over the death and said the disappearance or abduction of a child was not merely a family tragedy but a matter of concern for the entire society. According to the police, her father reported her
A child’s journey to school should never be a gamble. Yet in Pakistan, thousands of students travel every day in overcrowded vans, ageing Suzuki vehicles and rickshaws that are often poorly maintained and sometimes fitted with dangerously installed LPG cylinders. That this has been allowed to become routine is itself a serious failure of regulation. The Lahore Traffic Police’s decision to crack down on overloading and the use of LPG cylinders in school transport
• Petitioners seek an effective age-verification mechanism for minors’ accounts • State urged to protect kids from cyberbullying, harassment and harmful online content ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has been approached seeking directions to the federal government to introduce legislation and a comprehensive regulatory framework to regulate social media use by children under the age of 16. The petition, filed through advocates Muhammad Jalal Haider and Yahya Farid Khawaja, seeks the introduction of an
HARIPUR: Police have arrested three teenage boys for ‘kidnapping’ a five-year-old girl, who went missing about 12 days ago from an urban locality here. One of the accused confessed before the magistrate that he and one of the four accomplices had raped the girl after abduction. He, however, said that he left the place of the crime after committing the rape and did not know about what happened to the girl afterwards. According to
KARACHI: Two patients, including a boy from Sanghar, died of rabies in as many days at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) while a woman from Hyderabad affected by the deadly infectious disease is currently under palliative care at the Indus Hospital, it emerged on August 21. With the latest cases, sources said, the death toll from the infectious disease has risen to 25. Thirteen deaths were reported at Indus Hospital — 12 at
CHAKWAL: An inquiry into the killing of nine-year-old Australian national Hania Ahmed has found a Crime Control Department (CCD) Punjab constable guilty, concluding that he opened indiscriminate fire on a car without prior permission from senior officers. The incident took place on the night of June 10-11 outside the CCD police station in Chakwal city. Adeel Ahmed, an Australian national, his wife and two minor children were being robbed by two armed men when the constable