Pak news anchor goes on air with daughter, protests minor's rape, murder

Mumbai: A Pakistani news channel presenter, on Wednesday, succeeded in spurring concern with her potent move to have her young daughter on her lap during a live telecast.

Kiran Naz, a Samaa TV presenter, stressed on how she felt as a mother after a minor girl was brutally raped and murdered in eastern Pakistan’s Kasur town.

One of the most popular Pakistani TV news presenters Naz, begun the telecast saying, “Today I'm not your host Kiran Naz. I'm a mother and that is why I'm sitting here with my daughter.”

Naz then carried on with her emotional coverage on the chain of events that followed the kidnapping, rape and ultimate killing of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari.

Zainab disappeared last week on her way to a place in the neighbourhood, she visited for Quranic studies. Later on Tuesday, her body was recovered in a waste-yard in Kasur.

“It is said that the smaller the corpse, the heavier it feels. Today, a tiny corpse is lying on the streets of Kasur and entire Pakistan is crushed under its weight... This day marks the funeral of humanity,” Naz said in her impassioned monologue.

The news presenter asserted that ensuring justice to Zainab and meting out punishment to the offenders should be of utmost priority.

Naz also criticised usual political interference and subsequent delay in police probe in such cases.

The rape and murder of a seven-year-old made people in Kasur furious. An angry mob attacked a police station. Two people died in clashes with security forces.