The police officer stopped mid-sentence, staring at the phone in his hand. He looked up at the search team, his face pale. They had been combing through Kasur for days, looking for a missing seven-year-old girl. Now, they had found her, but not alive.
Zainab Amin Ansari was a quiet, deeply religious child who lived with her family in the narrow lanes of Road Kot. While other children played, she focused on her studies and her prayers. Her mother, Nusrat, considered her a gift, an angel born after a difficult delivery that nearly killed them both. But their town had a dark secret.
For years, a ring of men had been abducting and abusing children in the nearby village of Hussain Khanwala. Videos of the crimes were sold online, and families were blackmailed into silence. When the scandal broke, a local politician and police were accused of helping to cover it up. The country was angry, but nothing seemed to change.
In early 2018, at least twelve young girls had been assaulted and murdered within a small radius of Kasur. Their bodies were dumped in drains or on garbage heaps. Parents were terrified, but the police investigation was slow, and many believed the authorities were failing them. On the evening of January 4th, Zainab told her cousin she was going to her religious classes.
She left their home around seven o’clock, dressed in a green pullover and an orange knitted dress, her black and white striped hoodie pulled over her head. Her parents were in Saudi Arabia performing the Umrah pilgrimage, leaving the children with relatives. As they reached a familiar road, Zainab suddenly ran ahead. A man emerged from the shadows and called her name.
The CCTV cameras mounted on shops and buildings recorded what happened next: Zainab paused, turned toward him, and followed him into a narrow, dark lane. Investigators later believed the man told her that her parents had returned from their trip and wanted to see her. That was the last time she was ever seen alive. When Zainab didn’t come home, her family panicked.
They announced her disappearance through the mosque speakers, and her uncle filed a missing person’s report. When her parents finally returned from their pilgrimage, posters of Zainab with two bloody handprints were plastered across the city. Social media users circulated her photo, demanding justice. But her family said the police showed little urgency, often stopping by for tea and oranges without ever helping with the search.
On January 9th, a policeman searching near a garbage dumping ground only 400 meters from Zainab’s house found her body. She was still wearing the same orange dress and striped hoodie she had worn the day she vanished. Her body was covered in mud, garbage, and blood. The autopsy was performed by Dr.
Quratulain Atiq. She found torture marks on Zainab’s face and body. The hyoid bone in her neck was fractured, and there was evidence of strangulation. Zainab had been sexually assaulted in multiple ways.
The doctor later struggled to describe the condition of the child’s body. The discovery triggered violent protests. Government buildings were attacked. Police opened fire, killing two protesters.
The district police officer was removed and replaced by Zahid Nawaz Marwat, who launched a massive investigation. Forensic teams collected samples from Zainab’s body and cross-checked DNA from over a thousand local men. They also investigated the murders of the other twelve girls who had been killed in Kasur over the previous years. They found the same DNA traces had been left on six of them.
All of the victims were young girls who had disappeared near their homes, only to be found dead in rubbish dumps or deserted houses. Using mobile phone data and CCTV footage, investigators narrowed their focus. One eyewitness, a mason who had once fought with a man to save another girl, helped create a sketch of the suspect. But very few people in the community came forward.
No one admitted to recognizing the man in the footage, even though he lived right in the neighborhood. Then, they found him. Imran Ali was a 24-year-old construction laborer who lived less than 100 meters from Zainab’s house. His father, a mason, had died about six weeks earlier.
Neighbors said suspicion grew when he shaved his beard shortly after Zainab’s body was found. His own mother and grandmother reportedly knew something was strange about him but said nothing until the police pressured them. Imran had been detained twice before. During questioning, he had complained of heart problems and vomiting, and officers let him go without taking a DNA sample, worried about a death in custody.
On January 19th, he was detained again after new intelligence. This time, samples were taken before he was released once more. His DNA matched Zainab’s samples, as well as the DNA of at least seven other victims. Once arrested, Imran confessed.
He admitted to assaulting eight boys and girls and killing six of them. He said he had covered their mouths and pressed down on their heads to silence them, unintentionally suffocating them. He claimed he had been abused in his own childhood and felt a sense of power and loss of control. He also bizarrely blamed poverty and asked for leniency, saying he hoped to make amends by helping girls financially with their weddings.
He even dared to show up at Zainab’s funeral. His lawyer at the time was appointed by the state and allegedly did not challenge any evidence, not even the confession. The trial lasted only four days. On February 17th, Imran was sentenced to death for kidnapping, murder, and an act of terror, in addition to a life sentence for sodomy.
He would eventually be handed a total of 21 death sentences, three life terms, and 23 years of imprisonment, along with millions of rupees in fines. Zainab’s mother, Nusrat, said the sentence was not enough. She wanted him stoned at the spot where her daughter’s body had been found. Imran appealed his conviction, and his new attorney, Assad Jamal, found the case suspiciously rushed.
He said Imran had been promised leniency if he confessed and had been told his life and his family’s were in danger from mobs. When Jamal asked for two weeks to prepare, the judge refused, saying there wasn’t even two hours available. The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence in a hearing that lasted only fifteen minutes. A mercy petition to the President of Pakistan was rejected.
On October 17, 2018, Imran was hanged at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. He walked to the gallows calmly and made no final statement, not even to ask for forgiveness. Zainab’s father, Amin, who was present, said he felt justice had been served. But he lamented that crimes against children continued unabated.
Imran’s grandmother said both families suffered: one lost a daughter, the other a son. She said only God knew the full truth, and that justice would ultimately come from him. In the wake of Zainab’s murder, lawmakers were inspired by the United States’ Amber Alert system. In 2019, the Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Act was introduced.
The law created a national early warning system for missing children, required police to respond quickly, and established a nationwide database. The new agency, Zara, operates a 24-hour helpline and requires police to notify them within two hours of a missing child report. Under the law, police who fail to respond face disciplinary action. Many advocates welcomed the legislation as a major breakthrough, though others warned that its success would depend on proper training, resources, and a change in institutional attitudes.
Years later, Zainab’s mother, Nusrat, still keeps her daughter’s school notebook. The last thing Zainab ever wrote was a personal introduction, written in her own small, careful handwriting. “I am a girl. My name is Zainab.
My father’s name is Amin. I am 7 years old. I live in Kasur.
”
