The family of a 10-year-old Pakistani girl who was abducted and murdered have said they were ignored by police when they tried to report her missing. They say police told them the child might have eloped, and they were made to carry out errands for officers. Farishta vanished in Islamabad on 15 May and a body believed to be hers was found on 20 May.

Police are investigating if she was raped and tortured, and protests are being held to demand justice. The individual police officers involved deny wrongdoing. Hundreds protested in central Islamabad on Tuesday calling for justice. The case has been compared to the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in January 2018 – which sparked outrage and protests across the country. Calls for action are being made on social media, under the hashtag #JusticeFor Farishta.

“The police didn’t help us at all,” Farishta’s father Ghulam Nabi told the BBC at Tuesday’s protest, which blocked a major intersection. “They would ask me to clean their office, to move their furniture, and to go get fruit for their Iftar [fast-breaking] dinner from the market. “I was so distressed during those [four] days that I couldn’t tell night from day.”(BBC)…[+]