A mob angered by the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl attacked a police station and a nearby government building in eastern Punjab province, triggering clashes that left at least two people dead and several injured.
The violence erupted in the city of Kasur on Wednesday, hours before the funeral of Zainab Ansari, whose case has drawn wide public outrage.
The girl went missing last week while going to a nearby home for Koranic studies.
Her parents, who were away at a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia at the time, returned on Wednesday, landing at the Islamabad airport.
“We will not bury our daughter until her killers are arrested,” said the father, Ameen Ansari, as his wife sobbed.
Zainab’s body was found on Tuesday in a rubbish bin, senior police officer Imran Nawaz Khan explained.
Police say she was abducted, raped and murdered. Officer Maqsood Ahmed said six girls were sexually assaulted in recent months in Kasur and that police were probing whether there was a connection in the cases.
As the attack on the police station and the subsequent clashes unfolded on Wednesday, local TV broadcast footage showing police firing shots in the air and towards the stone-throwing mob, trying to disperse it.
The Lahore High Court’s chief justice has since ordered a probe into Zainab’s killing.
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