SIALKOT: A good number of people including the family of a slain Christian girl on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration at Kutchery Chowk over police failure to trace the culprits even after the passage of one year.

Holding banners and placards inscribed with their demand for the arrest of the killers, the protesters chanted slogans against police.

On Jan 23, 2017, the Sambrial police had found the body of a girl in the Upper Chenab Canal.

Speaking to journalists during Wednesday’s protest, the slain girl’s father expressed his distrust of police who, he said, had failed to track down the culprits. “Police remain reluctant to bring the management of the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Sialkot Cantonment (the school of the slain girl) under the scope of investigation despite repeated requests by the family,” he said.

At the time of the incident, the Sambrial police had claimed that the girl committed suicide by drowning herself in the canal. The bereaved family contested the claim by saying there was no water in the canal and that there was absolutely no reason for the girl to end her life.

Police had registered a murder case on the insistence of the family that she was abducted and killed.

Now they have urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the case and ensure arrest of the killers.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2018