Protesters marched for a second day Thursday in the Pakistani city of Kasur over the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl whose body was found dumped on a garbage pile.
On Tuesday, police found her body in a dumpster about a mile from her home. She was the 12th child to have been murdered in the past year within a 1.2-mile (2km) radius of Kasur, a city in the province of Punjab scarred by years of paedophilia scandals.
On Wednesday two protesters were killed due to clash with the police, and on Thursday a company of military police entered the city as residents attacked the homes of politicians.
“We want justice and the real culprit presented before us,” Zainab’s uncle, Gulam Rasul told.
Mahira Khan, an actor and one of many public figures to have echoed the sense of anguish across Pakistan, demanded an example be made of the culprit that “scares anyone to even think of doing something like this again”.
Kiran Naz, a newsreader on local television, delivered the afternoon bulletins with her eight-year-old daughter on her lap in a protest against violence against children.
Zainab, the youngest of four children, was last seen on 4 January. She was apparently abducted outside a religious tuition centre where she was a student, 100 metres from her home.
Kasur police have since released a grainy CCTV image of the child walking hand-in-hand with her suspected killer, whose back is turned to the camera, a little further down the road.
On Wednesday an autopsy confirmed that Zainab was raped and strangled to death.
Zainab’s mother and father were on an Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia at the time of her abduction. Arriving at Islamabad airport on Wednesday, Ameen Asari, Zainab’s father said police were not doing enough to find their child.
“In Pakistan, security is for leaders and we are just common insects,” Asari said.
Shehbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, offered a reward of $90,000 (£66,000) to anyone who supplied information leading to an arrest.
Police have arrested 10 suspects in the Zainab case in Kasur and said the investigation was ongoing.
> Shiuly Akter
