Zainab Amin was a name unfamiliar to all Pakistanis apart from the six-year-old family's up until January, 2018.

She went missing on Jan 4 and five days later, a police constable deputed to trace the girl recovered her body from a heap of trash near the Shahbaz Khan Road.

Police said the girl seemed to have been killed four or five days earlier.

Being the 12th such incident to occur within a 10 kilometre radius in Kasur in one year, Zainab's rape and murder had sparked outrage and protests across the country.

The heinous nature of the crime had seen immediate riots break out in Kasur — in which two people were killed — while #JusticeforZainab became a rallying cry for an end to violence against children.

Below is a timeline of the case that had shook the nation and forced the government into action in finding the serial rapist and killer.