SIALKOT: The family of a minor girl found dead around a week ago staged a protest against Sambrial police on Sunday in front of the press club.

The protesters were carrying banners and placards and chanted slogans against the police. They urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to provide them justice by directing police to trace out the “killers” of the young girl.

Nadeem Gill, the father of 12-year-old slain Tania Mariyam, told the media that his daughter was a student of Class VI at Convent of Jesus and Mary. On Jan 23, her brother Johnson had dropped her off to school. Later in the afternoon, Sambrial police had told them that Tania had committed suicide by jumping into the Upper Chenab canal near Sambrial.

Gill said it was out of question that that his daughter would commit suicide, as she had gone to school, which was 15km from the canal where her body was found. He feared his daughter had been kidnapped, raped and murdered and later her body thrown into the canal to present it as a suicide.

He alleged that Sambrial police had termed this murder an accidental death instead of finding out the facts to locate the culprits. He said the family had decided to move the magisterial court for exhuming his daughter’s body. He asked police to bring the school management under investigation to resolve the murder.

Gill urged the chief minister to look into the matter and provide them justice.

RAILWAY STATION: The Sialkot junction railway station and adjacent Daak Banglow have been littered with garbage for a long time and noxious and foul smell makes the facility a no-go area. Both buildings have been crumbling bit by bit due to non-maintenance.

Overgrown bushes have covered the patches of Daak Banglow whereas the residential quarters for railway employees, doctor’s house and godowns are also in a very miserable condition.

The local people dump garbage along the Sialkot-Pasrur-Narowal and Sialkot-Sambrial-Wazirabad railway lines without any check. The compound of the Sialkot railway station has been converted into a parking stand.

The sorry state of the railway station mocks the claims of the railway minister that the department is chugging safe and well.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2017