Pakistan: After Being Convicted of Raping and Killing 6-Year-Old, Imran Ali to Be Executed

Pakistan will execute convicted rapist and murderer Imran Ali, authorities announced on Oct. 12.

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore issued multiple so-called black warrants and scheduled the execution for Oct. 17.

“Today’s warrants were issued after President Arif Alvi rejected Ali’s appeal for clemency in the Zainab case on October 10,” said prosecutor Abdul Rauf Watoo, reported Dawn.

According to GEO-TV, the court sentenced Imran to death for kidnapping, rape, and murder.

Zainab Ansari, 6, sits in a vehicle with her father in Kasur in Pakistan's Punjab Province in January 2018. Family Handout/AFP/Getty Images

Zainab Ansari, 6, stands outside her home in Kasur in Pakistan's Punjab Province in a file photo before her death. Family Handout/AFP/Getty Images

DNA Leads to Conviction

Imran was convicted in February of raping and murdering eight minors, including Zainab Amin, after being identified through DNA tests, reported The Express Tribune.

Judge Sheikh Sajjad Ahmad, who handled the sentencing, ordered the criminal to be put to death by hanging.

Zainab’s body was found near her aunt’s house in Kasur on Jan. 9, five days after she was abducted; widespread protests took place, during which two protesters were killed by police officers. The abduction, rape, and murder was the 12th to occur in Kasur over a 12-month period, according to Dawn.

Zainab was strangled to death, authorities said.

DNA samples were collected from over 1,000 people in the area through Jan. 23. Officers arrested Imran, a neighbor of Zainab, after his DNA matched samples collected from the 6-year-old and seven other victims.

Imran eventually confessed to raping and killing Zainab and a number of other young girls.

Nusrat Bibi, the Pakistani mother of Zainab Ansari, 6, who was found raped and murdered, weeps during a protest outside their home in Kasur in Pakistan's Punjab Province on Jan. 12, 2018. Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani policemen escort Imran Ali, convicted or raping and murdering multiple young girls, as they leave an anti-terrorist court after a hearing in Lahore on Feb. 9, 2018. Imran was sentenced to death on Oct. 12, 2018. AFP/Getty Images

Reaction

Zainab’s mother, Nusrat Bibi, had told reporters previously that she wanted her child’s murderer to be executed in public.

“I want him to be hanged publicly at the place where he took Zainab,” she told reporters after the verdict in February, according to AFP.

Prior to the apprehension of Imran, parents in the area had been scared to let their children outside, according to Zainab’s father, Muhammad Amin Ansari.

“For the last two years, we are living in fear, parents are scared to send their kids outside,” he said in January.

Ansari blamed authorities for not catching the killer sooner.

I am concerned about this system, that my daughter could have been saved,“ Ansari said. The acts of the authorities, their disinterest and lack of help have led to the death of my child.”

From NTD.tv

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