Horror of child abuse finally out in the open in Muslim Pakistan
Stream of sexual attacks make headline news in a traditional Muslim nation that is being forced to open its eyes to heinous crimes
In a rural village in Pakistan's eastern rice belt, two teenage sisters left for school one recent day on a muddy village path far too narrow for cars.
Within hours, they were dead, their bodies left facedown along a swampy canal after they had been raped and shot multiple times. By the next morning, their deaths were news across Pakistan, the latest in a grisly stream of sexual attacks on minors.
"People are now reporting things, and people are now seeing children are suffering heinous, horrible crimes
"They were identified by their clothes," Muhammad Nazir, the victims' uncle, said. "All we know for sure: They went from their house to school, and they were murdered."
For generations, rape was a taboo subject in this conservative Muslim society. Just a decade ago, the news about the sisters might never have travelled beyond their rural area.
But thanks to a freer media and a push by child-welfare advocates to get families to report such crimes, the number of cases under investigation is rising, as is the outrage of parents, the public and advocacy groups.
"People are now reporting things, and people are now seeing children are suffering heinous, horrible crimes," said Narjis Zaidi, a human rights advocate in Islamabad.
On the same day in late September that the sisters were killed on the outskirts of Gujranwala, the body of a 13-year-old girl was found on a Karachi beach after she had been raped and killed on the way to school.