Rotten Mango - #278: 7-Year-Old Girl SA’d, Killed, & Thrown In Garbage - Pakistan’s Worst Serial Killer Caught

Episode Date: July 16, 2023

This was the first hit that Zainab’s family got after she went missing. The shop owner said he didn’t see her personally but he had CCTV cameras outside his shop. The family sat around holding their breath - eyes scanning the grainy footage. Some of the others were comforting them that they would find her in the footage and realize she was just lost. She would come home safe. But it fell silent. Nobody believed that anymore. On the screen, they saw 7-year-old Zainab in her pink coat walking hand in hand with a stranger. A strange man. He was not someone the family knew. He was Pakistan’s worst serial killer. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bramble. Better being better, boo. This was the first hit that Zen Ebb's family got after she went missing. I mean, they had tried going door to door, talking about Zen Ebb, asking about Zen Ebb. They tried tracing her movements. They asked all the neighbors, have you seen our Zen Ebb? They printed out posters of her face, just hoping. Someone would maybe be like, oh, I think I saw her walking in that general direction.

They just wanted a single clue that's all they wanted. There was nothing. Until this family, they sat around, they crowded around the screen really, just waiting for the shop owner to start playing it. He didn't seize the neb, personally, right? But he does have CCTV cameras all around the outside of his shop. She happened to go missing nearby. There might be nothing on the cameras.

There might be something on the cameras. They had to at least check, right? So friends of the family, even the shop owner, they sat around watching the grainy CCTV footage play. They tried comforting the family members. It's okay. She's gonna turn up. Or maybe she got bored and went to a friend's house and then got lost on the way home.

We're gonna find her, she's gonna show up on the cameras and we're gonna find her so scared and you won't even be mad at her because you'll just be so happy she's back home. They fill the air with all of their reassurances and then they see her on CCTV. Everyone holds their breath for like 15 seconds. That's how long the CCTV camera footage

was and in the footage it's nighttime. And there is the neb wearing her signature pink puffer jacket skipping down the road. Her body language seems relaxed but no one could offer any more reassurances. It just wouldn't feel right to look the family in the eye and say, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna find her and everything will just be a funny story. Because in the CCTV footage, seven-year-olds in Ebb was holding a strange man's hand. He was guiding her somewhere. And the footage felt hopeless. I mean, the quality of the CCTV was so grainy, you couldn't even make out most of the features.

He was caught on camera with a missing girl and he was still unidentifiable. This is the case that would change the entire nation of Pakistan. It would lead to the arrest of a serial killer that only targeted children. And this became the embodiment of the saying, the smallest coffins are the heaviest. As always, slow show notes are available at rottenminglepodcast.com. Today's case is going to be a really heavy one. We're going to talk about children who were victimized. A serial killer that targets the most vulnerable and an entire ring of predators really, in

a city that just targets the youngest. If you're already in a low place today, I recommend lighting a candle, watering a plant, petting a dog, maybe listening to this later. And before we get started, I want to mention this case takes place in Pakistan. And I want to make it very, very clear. And I want to be very, very aware of all the stereotypes about Pakistan and about my Muslim friends and about maybe even just unconscious biases that we might have. I did a lot of research for this case and got help from researchers to help present this

case to you in the best way possible, but there is a lot of religious, cultural and political context that goes into this. So we did our best to present it as the most thorough and with the utmost respect, but as always, if there is anything I've missed or something I didn't get quite right, please let me know in the comments. And just a really good thing to keep in mind, while I was researching this case is I was constantly

reminding myself, any emotion I have about anything, take a second to question it, sometimes privilege is disguised as moral superiority, just to make ourselves feel better. And we've talked in depth about similar crimes that have happened in other parts of the world. So this is not a statement on Pakistan or the Pakistani people or their political religious beliefs. So with that being said, let's get into it. The city of Kizur had seen a lot. I mean, I think similar to any big city anywhere in the world, Kizur city had a dark past,

you know, I feel like every big city has an open secret of sorts. Something horrible that's happened, and if you've been living in that city long enough, maybe you witnessed it, maybe you knew people who were involved, maybe you knew who someone, who was a victim, and you just don't really talk about it. No one openly talks about it, but it's almost ingrained in the city.

It's part of the city's history. It's there, it's in the air. For Kuzur City, it was the denial of 400 torture videos, including children. The officials tried to gaslight the public, the parents, and the victims that, hey, these 400 torture videos, they don't exist. I know you saw them with your own two eyes, but no, they don't exist. What? So let me explain. Because our city is along the Indian Pakistan border on the Pakistan side. It's a beautiful city with a rich history, and I heard the street food there is like on a whole other level. They have like cold sweet noodles that are called me Thai. I think I'm saying it wrong.

But they also have like really delicious biscuits that they're known for and it's kind of a staple there, but I digress, beautiful city. The population is about 400,000, so think like which of Tau Kha'an's this, it's about that size. And out of these 400,000, it is estimated that a good chunk

are street children. Wow. So it's nearly impossible to walk down the street in the center of the city without seeing a child without a home. A lot of children leave their homes due to financial issues, abuse at home, and there's no state-run social welfare program for these children. There's no like foster home, there's no shelter for these kids. They're forced on to the street. Many of them fall victim to begging, gangs, child labor, and that's if you're

lucky, right? If you're not lucky, you become prey to predators. In 2015, a civilian came forward and started doing press interviews. He accused the local public of covering up the biggest child abuse scandal in the country to date. They said that it's been going on for the past nine years since 2006, and there was proof there were videos, explicit videos of abuse of children, CP. So feel free to skip ahead about a minute, but I'll try to be brief. The videos were said to have been some of the worst out there. Many victims were assaulted at gunpoint. It extensively showed them crying and begging for the evil people to stop.

It almost showcased that in a way that made it clear to parents and authorities that that is something that maybe the viewers wanted to see was the turmoil that was felt amongst the victims. There were axes and other weapons used in the video. The murders, the monsters, they would threaten to hurt the victims if they ever told anyone about these tapes. Some of the victims were shown being drugged, that was caught on camera. Sometimes the monsters would hang the victims upside down and beat them like pinatas.

I don't know who originally found the videos, but when most of the town's people, when the adults saw them, their blood ran cold. I mean, they knew these kids, that's the crazy thing. These weren't just some random videos from the dark web. Even that would be traumatizing, but these were kids that they saw on a daily basis. That's like Johnny from down the street. That's Kelsey who goes to school with McKenzie.

Okay, these are not Pakistanian names, but you get it, like these are kids that they see, yesterday, they saw yesterday, they saw today.. Like these are kids that they see yesterday. They saw yesterday. They saw today. How can this be? They weren't missing. They were at home.

They were at school right now, but this video shows them in this weird torture house being filmed like this, like having the world's worst imaginable stuff but being done to them. Like what is going on? How did these things happen? And nobody, not even their parents or the teachers of the police knew about it? So for close to nine years, a group of monsters did this to the town's kids right under everyone's

noses. The way the trafficking ring would be run was the group of monsters would grab a child while they were alone. Sometimes they would lure the child. Other times they would straight up put a weapon up to the face of the child and make them follow them. From there they would take them to a designated torture house. This house was not that discreet. It was actually relatively close to the local police station. It had a big sign on the front door that said no entry. And you know, most evil people who create these types of horrendous videos, they'll try to disguise their home and make it impossible to identify where it was filmed. Not these monsters, they literally didn't care. They would abuse the victims, recording all of it, and when they were done, they would release these victims back home to their parents,

back home where they were technically free to call the police. But they wouldn't, because the whole time, the most traumatic thing is happening to them, they're also being threatened. You see that axe over there? Yeah, good. With you tell anybody about what happened today, I'm going to use it to chop you to pieces. It sounds unbelievable. Like if this were in a movie and you heard a villain say it, I would think, wow, who wrote this? It's like really stereotypical, like caricature of a villain and evil person. You would turn it off because it feels so nasty.

But no, these people really said that to literal children and kids being kids, they believe them. Sometimes the perpetrators would even force the victims to come back. Now, I don't want to say voluntarily because that's not the case, obviously. But force them to come back on their own two feet, if you will. They would use the videos they took to blackmail them into staying quiet and making more

videos. Or sometimes they would tell them, if you don't want your parents or all your friends and family to know about this video, you have to go home and steal all the cash that you can find laying around. When that got old, the perpetrators would straight up go to the parents. They would show the parents these torture videos of their own children and demand that they pay.

It wasn't even like an online thing, like sending an anonymous email, some sort of ransom note. It was just straight up their faces were in the open. A group would just show up at their house. Is there, like, they're very corrupted, like the government is not there to support a family. Yeah, so there's a lot of layers to it, right?

And so these monsters, they would demand blackmail from the parents. I'm going to walk you through the process because it's really intense. They would say things like, if you don't want this video of your kid being essayed out there, you need to pay us. I know exactly what you're thinking.

Why didn't they go to the police? They did. The police did absolutely nothing. Literally nothing. And just for some legal context, CP of all types are illegal in Pakistan, much like the rest of the world. Listen, maybe there is a country out there that it's not legalized or it's not illegal, but I'm not trying to Google that. So I don't know. I'm just going to say most of the world. Like most places, it is illegal in each step of the process. It's illegal to create said video. It's illegal to partake and said video,

illegal to have the video, illegal to spread the video. So they're breaking the law on every single front clearly. And blackmail on top of that, I mean, these are some very, very serious charges. But the police did nothing. Parents realized the police were not only going to help them, they sure as help were not going to protect them. Now here's the other problem.

Any explicit video is illegal in Pakistan, even if it's between two consenting adults. Now I think that this plays a huge role in why the police didn't want to help. I don't know if that since changed or is slowly changing, but from what I can find online, the government does not like explicit content and has stated that it is blasphemous and religiously immoral. When was this? 2015. Oh my god.

So the parents realize, okay, the police don't care about our kid, but, but, best case scenario, this video gets out and our child's life is ruined, worst case scenario, their kid gets arrested for quote, partaking in the video. Because it's illegal to make any sort of explicit video. But there are victims. Yeah, but the law is kind of like gray area. So many parents were forced to give up their entire life savings just so these videos didn't get out.

They paid money to the abusers to try and protect their children from further damage. Now this is where I'm saying like privilege is often disguised as moral superiority. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of vile to parents and like me too. I've got two nieces. Of course I'm going to sit here and be like I would never let that happen, right? But you have to remember, you grew up in the states where to a degree, you had certain privileges that maybe weren't around in other parts of the world. One father reportedly paid over $4,000 to his sons' assalters. For reference, the average annual income there is 420 USD. I also think that because there was this bubble of shame around these situations, the parents

were not likely to talk to one another about what just happened to them, what just happened to their kids, how they had been blackmailed. Again, they thought that they were doing their best in helping and protecting their children from further trauma. I think the thinking is, this already happened. I can either protect my kid and their future, or I can mess it up even more. But once this news came out, once this person went to the press in 2015, I think parents

became more open to talk about it because society reacted in a way that they weren't expecting. Society was angry. One parent said, my child stopped going to school. Whenever we saw the perpetrator, because they're out in the open, okay? They would take our son into the torture house, and they would assault our son for more than five hours. And now it's finally out in the open?

I mean, they're monsters. I saw my own child in those videos and my heart broke. I ran to the police, but nobody helped me. Everyone in the village knew what was happening, but they were too scared to say anything. Another mother said, we went to the cops and they did nothing. They said, yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard this case before. Bring us something new. It's estimated that at least 280 children had been abused by this video ring. One 15 year old boy said he was getting water from the river first family family and this man came

up behind him. He felt something cold on his back. It was a gun. Follow me or else. The boy that said that he was led to some sort of torture house and he continued, as soon as I went inside, he locked the door, he called out and five more men came out. I started screaming. They covered my mouth.

Each of them was holding a weapon. One even had an axe. They said that they would cut me into tiny little pieces if I made another sound. And then the assaults happened. They recorded everything and they blackmailed the little 15 year old boy and he said, I had to steal money from my own parents for them. I had to steal jewelry for them. Or else they would kill me and feed me to the hyenas and dogs. That's what they told me. I had to steal from my own family, my own home. I think in total it was like $1,300. Again, that's two to three years of an annual income. More and more stories like this started coming out. And all of Pakistan

was outraged. I mean, every single Pakistani had the same question. Not the question that the parents were initially worried about. So not the question of like, why the kids were alone? What were they wearing? How did the parents let this happen? No, never. The Pakistani people stood behind the parents and asked, where were the police?

Where were the police? So citizens, they formed a mob. They attacked the police station, they threw rocks through the windows, they threw rocks through the cars, lit things on, and when there were no more rocks to throw, parents of victims took off their shoes and hurled them at police officers. They screamed, they stole my child's innocence. We work so hard to send our children to school to give them a better life, what can we ever do to get their innocence back?

You would think. Okay, you would think. After all of this, the police would hang their heads in shame, but no. They met the mob with violence. They straight up tear gasped the victim's parents and beat them with batons. And after all of that, the Minister of Law came out and gave the first official response and he said, regarding the child abuse allegations of Kuzor, no instance of child abuse has been reported. Reports to this effect surfaced after two parties involved were involved in a land

dispute. They were registering fake cases against each other. He's basically saying that two citizens were fighting about land, and in their petty fight about land, they start making up some of the most atrocious rumors about one another that they could think of. Thankfully, there was an official in the town, the chief minister who personally requested the chief of justice of all of Pakistan, so on a national level, to look at the allegations. His request was denied. Yeah, they said, well, the province of Punjab is already looking into it.

Yeah, well, I don't think they're really doing a good job, you know? The Punjab court stated that everything was made up. They denied it. They literally denied 400 concrete pieces of video evidence. Yeah, in the end, they did have to take action, and the police arrested 14 men. 14 people were involved in this, and I don't even want to say that they stayed hidden for nine years,

because I don't think that they made much of an effort to stay hidden. They got away with it for almost a decade in plain sight. All 14 men were suspected to be directly involved in the abuse of hundreds of children. The mother of one of these 14 men were suspected to be directly involved in the abuse of hundreds of children. The mother of one of these 14 men of one of the perpetrators, not a victim. She said, the entire village has turned against me, but I'm not scared. What are my children made a mistake many, many years ago?

That's what it was. What? One of the moms of the perpetrators said the village has turned against her after her son was arrested for this, but she's not scared. All this was was her son making a mistake. Many years ago. Wow. Which is crazy to me. I mean, how do you not feel ashamed?

How do you not, I get it, shame culture is bad, but shame is a very important emotion that should be felt when appropriate. Like how can she see the faces of the male victims of her son and not think of her son when he was younger? I don't know, like I'm not a parent, but I just can't imagine to have that level of disregard toward any victim, let alone a child victim as a parent. So this case becomes the worst instance of child abuse that the country had ever seen. The monsters were not only assaulted and recorded hundreds of children, but blackmailed

them and their families and went on to distribute the videos on various illegal websites. All of Pakistan was so disgusted. A total of 50 Pakistani clergy and religious scholars argued that if you were to follow Islamic law, these men should receive the death penalty. They also demanded that the government should provide assistance in consolation to the victims and their families. So most civilians, they agreed with this, but it just wasn't going to be that easy. The families of the perpetrators put a lot of pressure on the already vulnerable victims

to stay silent. There were a few victim testimonies that were crucial to the case and a few backed out last minute. But many, many of these very, very young people, they faced danger head-on with everything that they had already gone through, and they testified against their abusers. The court sentenced two of them to life in prison. Just two. These two were forced to pay a measly $3,600 to the victims' compensation. There's like 280 victims. Not each one.

Wow, how does that happen? What about the rest? Oh, the rest. Okay, so there were 14 arrested initially. Two of them got life in prison, but these numbers just kept multiplying. More and more arrests were made, and as far as we know, it's speculated by citizens that at least 25 people were involved. 25 different criminals.

And most of them got off really easy. Like they all got off on charges of like, sodomy and criminal threats, assaults. Wow. So no justice, nobody even cared about these victims. Yeah. I mean, all of the people, but it didn't seem like the court did at all. What's even more crazy is that during the trial, the court concluded that these two men who were imprisoned for life, they did not post these horrendous vile videos for monetary gain, which I don't know if that's supposed to make people feel better.

I feel like that's worse. That's what a lot of citizens were saying. A lot of people in Pakistan were saying, then why would they post it that? Like, they just thought it was fun. Like, it's some sort of say, coffee. They're just trading cards, trading videos. Not saying it's okay to post for monetary gain, but this makes it even more... Not the bonus is even sicker. Yeah. So the police basically, they go on a campaign after all of this

and they're just like, see, we did something. Lay off our bags, let us live our lives we're doing everything we did it guys you're safe now you're welcome they said the predators had been taken off the streets they said that order had been restored they said that there was nothing more to be scared of it wouldn't be the first time they lied. Near the local elementary school there was a residential building. And there lived a man, or Man Ali. Now, to unassuming busy neighbors Ali was a nice man. He loved getting fresh air. That's what people thought about him. He was 23 years old and he would spend a greater part of his day on the residential building's roof. He stood there, soaking in the sun, soaking in the view, taking deep breaths, maybe he's meditating. To more observant neighbors, there was something wrong with Ali.

One neighbor ran into him on the roof one day, and maybe she always wondered, what's so great about the roof? Honestly, the view, not that spectacular, and it's kind of hot. She walked up behind him and she saw I'm staring intently at someone something Was he watching someone from the roof like an ex girlfriend or something? That's creepy is that why he's always up there and She crinkled a little eyebrows and she followed his gaze and the hairs on the back of her next setup Every day he had run up to the rooftop around the same time like clockwork, so he could watch.

The little elementary schoolgirls play outside during recess. She quietly ran back downstairs, but ever since that day, she kept an extra eye out on her children and all the children in the residential building. She told her daughters that they were not under any conditions allowed to play outside. They weren't allowed to talk to him. She would be outside if they were outside. Some people might have thought that she was just a paranoid mom, that she was being dramatic. If she told people about her observation, they most likely shut her down.

They would defend Ali. What? Irmann Ali? No. He's the guy that recites religious poems at weddings and funerals. That's the guy that prays for everyone. Do you really think that badly of him? I think that you're just a little paranoid with everything that's happened in the city,

especially right now. Our city could really use some prayer more than ever. Little girls were going missing in Punjab. So this is almost right after this case was busted. So it's still ongoing with... Yeah. And the police are like, everyone's safe. We got the mall and we're throwing them in jail for like five days.

But little girls are going missing. This time it's not videos. They're gone. They're not coming back home. And it was like pouring salt into this already open bleeding wound of Kazaar. So I think the people of Pakistan, they felt betrayed. You know, they worked really hard to make changes after the 2015 video ring was exposed on both the social and criminal level. So I do want to give a lot of credit to the Pakistani people because most Pakistani

homes endured a drastic shift after this. It was super, super, super rare in this country to talk about anything sexual, including assaults or abuse. That combined with the conservative nature of Islam, which is the majority religion in Pakistan, young children really didn't know that strangers shouldn't touch them in certain areas.

Because in Islam, you just don't touch people like that. So no one even expected others to do that to their children. Nobody told them it was bad. Nobody told these kids that these adults shouldn't be doing this in the first place. And after the emergence of this 2015 case, parents and teachers started explaining to their kids that strangers or people even you know, shouldn't do certain things with you. It was a conversation about good and bad touch, which is like a huge change in Pakistan. And in 2016, Pakistan tightened its child abuse law,

they criminalized essay and trafficking for the first time. And like coming from the US, you're like, oh my god, 2016, that's crazy. This should have happened earlier, right? But keep in mind, this nation never publicly, at least, saw these problems at a large scale. Whether it was hidden by corrupt officials or other reasons, not a lot of citizens knew about it

to this degree, not saying it didn't happen, but it wasn't widely talked about. They actually worked really fast to put these laws into place, like really fast, like record speed. But historically, criminals don't care about the law. On June 23rd, 2015, the first girl went missing in a string of connected disappearances. She was five years old.

He assaulted her, but thankfully, he did not murder her. Well, whoever did this. She was found and returned back to her family, and yes, she was alive. She was able to physically recover, but she had intense PTSD afterwards. Her dad said, any time a door slams, she gets so freaked out. Anytime she sees a stranger, she's terrified. She has to run into the house and slam the door shut. The odd noises, they startled her, and it's been like this ever since the incident,

and it's not getting better. Residents tried to support the family the best they could, but they were also whispered. Are they back? I mean, how could they be back though? They were arrested, right? I don't know. It just feels like deja vu. Not even a year later, January 7th, 2017, another girl goes missing, 8-year-old Ayesha.

Is her dad's birthday, and Ayesha had been prepping for this day for weeks now She was able to get this tiny fluffy little teddy bear the ones that she loved the ones that made her feel very Comforted and she gave it to her dad. She's like here so you can hug when you're scared Any smiled and he probably wondered what did I do to get so lucky with a child like this That night she was kidnapped from their neighborhood. She was found assaulted, tortured, and murdered. Her father said that he cannot spend his birthday without being reminded of the day that his daughter went missing and the brutal way that she died. Before residents had the time to even fully process what was happening to their town again,

another girl goes missing. She was playing in the yard with her cousin and I don't know if you guys can see it's Amping up. So the first girl was found alive the second girl was kidnapped and found murdered now the third girl Okay, the third girl five-year-old Iman she was playing outside in her front lawn with her cousin So another probably a little boy, right and And up until this point, there were whispers of this shadowy, boogie man basically that nobody had seen in person, nobody knew this person. They didn't even know if it was the same person, but these girls were going missing.

Something was happening, but this time it was confirmed. Imman was outside with her cousin when a man approached them. This is all according to the little boy cousin's words, okay? He forced the cousin to turn around and face the building and he threatened, if you turn back around and look at me, I'm gonna kill you. Count to a certain number.

By the time that the cousin turned around, a man and the man were gone. Do you see the escalation of how ballsy this is getting? It goes from kidnapping to having witnesses. And this girl, a man was found tortured, assaulted and murdered. She was the third five-year-old Vixeman three years. Just two months later, a six-year-old girl

goes missing kidnapped from a grocery store. Did a little boy saw his face? Yeah, but he couldn't really make out much. The thing about him, he just looks so average. Even when the little boy is describing this man, he looks like your average Pakistani man. Like think about as average as possible. Now this little girl, six-year-old girl, she had gone to the corner store. It's not even like a full block from her house to buy milk. Her dad used to always do this and a lot of kids in Pakistan do this. He would give her the money.

She was taught how to count the change, what color lid to buy on the milk that they wanted at home. And she never made it back. She was found assaulted, tortured, and murdered, and dumped at a construction site. Three months later, a seven-year-old girl goes missing on her way to Karan class and she too was assaulted, tortured and murdered. Four months later, another girl goes missing. She actually survives, okay? He thought that he murdered her as well,

but she survived. Her eyes were swollen from abuse. Her skin on her face was said to have been almost like shred like ripped, but she was alive. She would as of right now not wake up from her coma. She is in the hospital in this state right now and her mom comes every single day to wash her skin with a cloth and feed her liquid through a tube. She cannot see, she cannot speak, she cannot use the restroom on her own. Her mom put a special black lace over her face

to keep the flies away. The doctors told her mom that they don't believe that she'll get better, but her mom doesn't care. She's not gonna give up on her daughter. And all the neighborhood kids, they would warn each other, don't go out alone anymore. Or else the boogeyman's gonna come get you, and you're gonna end up like Cannot.

If you notice, the first three victims all happened in different years. The past five have taken place in 2017 alone. All these girls were seven or younger. All of them were taken and brought daylight. They were assaulted, sodomized. They were discarded in public areas associated with trash, garbage dumps, dumpsters, alleyways, litter piles, construction sites. They all had the same person's DNA on them. And the last victim in this case would be Zanab. Have you heard of the Hodge?

So the Hodge is the journey to Mecca that every Muslim should make at least once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able according to the Quran. And Mecca is literally the most important city in Islam. It is the birthplace of Muhammad who was the final prophet of Allah. So in turn, the city is the birthplace of Islam itself really. And there's this huge mosque there that dates back to the seventh century. We're in the 21st century. It dates back to the seventh century, so

like the 600s. And it is so, so, so, so, so, so sacred. I mean, millions of Muslims go there every year for the Hajj, and just to give you a better visual understanding of the sacred space. The mosque surrounds a tall cloth covered cubic structure. That is the sacred shrine. Muslims will go there and pray and focus on Allah and it's so sacred that non-Muslims are rightfully not allowed. They're completely

banned from entering the Mecca. And I'm not religious and I'm not Muslim so I don't personally know the significance of Mecca and the Hage or even how it feels to be there, but I asked a friend who has done the Hage to explain what it felt like for him to be in a city that holy. He said it's like indescribable. There's so many people all dressed in white and they're moving together around the sacred shrine so they walk in a circle seven times in like a fluid movement like the ocean counterclockwise because for one that's what Muhammad did. So they're literally following in his footsteps, but they're also mimicking the solar system

and the galaxy. This is the wild part, okay? Electrons move counterclockwise around the nucleus. The planets move counterclockwise around the sun. Muslims have been performing this ritual way before anyone knew about the direction of electrons and planets. And in Unison, and I just find that so fascinating. But anyway, he said to be in Mecca is this opportunity for each Muslim to cleanse their

soul of passons and just find protection from the burdens of life. And they're spending time with Allah, and it's like such a vulnerable experience. He said to be there surrounded by that many fellow Muslims and that focus on Allah, it makes you feel big and small at the same time. It's like standing next to an ocean, you're reminded that you're so small against this huge mass of people and this huge feeling and these energies, but you also don't feel significant. You feel like this ocean is so beautiful

and just even stare at it, you feel like you're so blessed. Yeah, he said it was so beautiful to watch everyone pray together. But if you're not lucky enough to travel to the Hodge, it happens once a year. Millions of Muslims will come all over the world to stay in Mecca for about a week, okay? That's the hodge. But because if you can't make it that week, doesn't mean you can't go. Doesn't mean like the Mecca is closed. You have a similar experience

as a Muslim that's called Amra, and it's similar to Hodge, but it can be performed at any time of the year. You travel to Mecca, you refresh your faith, seek forgiveness, and you pray. If there was any place to pray for a miracle, it was at the Mecca. So Nisrat Ansari was one of the hundreds gathered at the Mecca that day in early January. This is of 2018. She and her husband had been saving for this trip

for years. And now they're finally here. They're doing the Amra together as husband and wife, but also as life partners and as parents The couple had three young daughters that were too young to come so they were at home in Pakistan being watched by their aunty and uncle But it was their second day at mecca and the husband gets a call from his brother who's watching their three daughters Nusrat the mom could not hear what her brother and I was saying over the phone But she saw her husband's body stiffened.

And his eyes were usually this very soft, inviting green color, and they just made you feel so safe. But now they look so wide, almost frantic, that it was starting to scare her a little bit. And she's trying to listen to the conversation because whatever it is, it just drastically shifted the mood. And her husband is saying things like, what are you saying? What are you telling me right now? And then he raised his voice for the first time, went for how long?

Where? Why was nobody with her? Who was her guide? No, Sir, I just had this queasy feeling in her stomach like when you're on a rollercoaster and you feel like your stomach is dropping and The longer her husband is on the phone the more anxiety is growing and her husband finally turns around and Continues the conversation so she can't even read his face and she just knew something was wrong something was very very wrong By the time that he hung up and turned around to face her

She could see that his long beard was soaked in tears. And she's like, what is it? What happened? And he said, it's Zineb. She's missing. They were told that Zineb had Quran class about two minutes from the house, the Uncle's house. And the uncle told her, no, you can't walk alone there. So my son, aka your 10 year old cousin, is gonna take you two in from there, just in case, you know, your seven. Maybe because the streets are so busy, it was very easy to get lost in the crowd.

So Zinebs' cousin grabbed his little cousin's hand tightly and stepped off the doorstep. He pulled her through the people toward her class and he's only 10 years old himself. So it's not like he could see above these towering adults heads to see which direction they're going in, but he was familiar with the route. He pulled her through the crowd,

weaved through these adult bodies, and something to remember is this hectic road, there's still an upheld custom. In Pakistan, elders have the right of way and children are taught to let seniors pass. So you have to constantly be scanning the road to make sure that you're not even cutting off an old lady. It's considered incredibly rude. Or worse, it's to bump into a senior. So little by little, he's like scanning constantly busy. There's so much stimulation

going on. And he felt the nabs hand slipping from his because you know with the sweat with all these people pushing past it's hard to keep a good grip. And he's squeezing tighter and he's pulling her and once his head is like swinging left and right scanning the crowd between one second and the next, his hand was empty. And he noticed it right away. And he spun around and Zineb was gone. It's wintertime and all the adults are wearing these big puffercoats. And his line of sight is more blocked. Now, respect to side, he's pushing through the crowd now. He's like pushing, looking for her pink puffercoat, puffercoat. She should be standing out. He thought maybe they're grip had loosened

and she's crying and they're separated and she's standing there upset. He fully expected to see her crying in the crowd. But she wasn't there. And he was only 10 himself, so he felt panic and guilt. He started breathing heavily and he lost his little cousin while he was supposed to be watching his little cousin. So he runs back home and he confesses to his parents immediately. He's like, I was outside and we just lost hands for like two seconds and now we can't

find her. Please, you got to help me. They all run out looking for Zana. They go door-to-door, neighbors start canvassing the area for them. The on and on call, they go to the police. And some context about the police, in this case, they did nothing, even though there had been a string of little girls going missing, and turning up murdered. The first 24 hours are the most crucial hours in a missing person's case, and they did nothing. They didn't even open an investigation.

They didn't assign a detective. They brushed off the family's panic. And since the police weren't doing anything, Zineb's family had to take matters into their own hands. Her parents didn't have the financial means to fly home early. And they were crying on the phone, and their relatives told them, we're going to handle it, okay? You stay put where you are because you are in the mecca.

If there is anywhere in the world to pray for Zanab, it is there. So you stay there. So back at home, the whole extended family, they put together a search party and a bunch of community members look for Zanab and they pass out pictures of Zanab. They're walking up and down the streets, knocking on every single door of every single apartment building asking, have you seen this little girl? And it just felt like everyone but the police were looking for a nab. No sradd and our husband I'm sure in the moment like nothing felt real to them anymore. I mean nothing they had saved

years for this pilgrimage. So now they had to stay and pray for the only thing that was truly probably in their lives worth praying for. So they prayed. And she said that she went to Mecca. She also went to Medina where Muhammad's mosque and tomb were and she prayed until her legs gave out underneath her. And when she crumbled to the ground in a pile, she continued to pray, and she remembered she was on her knees in the holiest place on all of earth. And she was begging.

She prayed until she was lightheaded, and she prayed, please, I come to your door as a beggar, Allah, please. Keep her safe, keep her protected. Please do not send me away, I'm dehanded. And I don't know anything about religion, okay, I'm not religious, like I said, but I do think that, I think we can all agree that just the human experience is so painful at times, especially in situations like this.

And there is a poem that really encapsulates that. So in the same area, 250 years before Nussrat came, a poem was written there at the mosque and it reads, God is found by those with kind hearts, repeating the name of the beloved. I have become the beloved myself. Whom shall I call the beloved now? Teradown the mosque if you must. Teradown the temple. Teradown everything in sight. But please don't break a human heart. And her heart would be shattered when

she got home. And I don't know what she thought about on the way home. Maybe she thought about her life as a mom, as Zeneb's mom. Zeneb was born in 2010 and she had a very traumatic birth. There were a lot of life threat, life threat in complications. And as soon as Zeneb popped out of her, doctors wheeled us around out of there and admitted her straight into the ICU. She had to be ventilated and stayed like that for weeks. She wasn't allowed to even physically see her baby until about two weeks later.

And she was so worried. You know as a mom, they always say the first few moments are the biggest moments of connection. She had missed those moments. So she's like getting me anxiety of like, what if my baby feels like I'm a stranger? Like a strange person. What if my baby doesn't like me?

What if my baby starts crying and doesn't realize I'm her mother? But the minute that she held the nap in her arms, But if my baby doesn't like me, what if my baby starts crying and doesn't realize I'm her mother? But the minute that she held Zineb in her arms, every single worry and concern and anxiety just dissipated, this was her baby. She had her father's calm, green, green eyes, and the majority of Pakistani people have brown eyes. And they just had these beautiful, soft, green eyes.

And Nusrat said, Zineb was my angel and I feel as if God saved me for her. As Zineb grew up, the one thing people noticed about her was pink. It was like pink, pink, pink, pink. Everything was pink. She loved pink. Pink, everything, pink jacket, pink shoes, pink, Barbie backpack, pink notebooks.

Purple was acceptable. Sometimes purple was liked, but pink, Oh yeah, that was her thing. Okay, so she had like purple bed sheets, but everything else pink. And she would have this little diary where she would write, I am a girl. My name is Zenev, my father's name is Muhammad Amin, and I'm seven years old. I live in Kizur, I'm a good girl, and I love mangoes. And she was absolutely adored by her parents. All three daughters were. So the one thing that every neighbor would remember about this family was

Muhammad would go out to run errands. And he had this perfectly like long combed beard. And they said if you knew him for a long time, every year we get a little bit wider and wider, but it's fine. And behind them, like little baby ducks were three girls. Just everywhere he went, they would just follow him around, like a little tail, a little shadow. And it was very heartwarming to see. I mean, because there's a lot of families that don't have that level of love and respect for each other, it was clear that the parents

had earned the kids' respect and trust. I mean, the kids loved them so much. Which is why I think the neighborhood really came together and they searched endlessly for Zineb. When their parents landed back home, they were filled in on everything and they hit the ground running. Then the security footage was uncovered. Like I mentioned earlier, Zineb was caught on a store security camera holding the hand of a strange man.

Nobody she knew, nobody the family knew. The quality of the CCTV footage was so grainy it was nearly impossible to identify the man she was with. From the footage, she wasn't wearing anything special. In fact, he was wearing prayer ropes. Long sleeves covered up to the neck, down to the knees she was with. From the footage, he wasn't wearing anything special. In fact, he was wearing prayer ropes. Long sleeves covered up to the neck, down to the knees with pants underneath. Everyone in Punjab has ropes like that.

They're prayer ropes. On top of that, he was by the footage, the most average looking man in Punjab. His height was average. His build was average. He wore average clothes. He had an avartera cut. He had the skin color of the average majority.

It was good evidence in the sense that they knew that she had left with someone, but it wasn't any more helpful in identifying the man. The family did pick up a few unsettling things from this video though. For one, they don't know this man. Zanep does not know this man. Whoever this man was most likely heard about Zineb being missing and still hasn't come forward to this day to say that he had seen her, that he was with her. And another thing, the street that they were walking on was pretty narrow.

And imagine like a very busy alleyway of New York City. You're always, there's not really an alleyway where cars aren't coming in and out. You have to look both ways when you're walking, even if you think it's calm. Cars were driving in and out of this alleyway. And Zineb was on the outer part of the street while the man stuck very close to the building because the risk of getting hit by a car in these alleyways is pretty high. I think that just shows his level of disregard for children. Even if this is not your kid, even if I saw a kid who was lost, and I hold that kid's hand, and I say, okay, let me go find your parents, I would put that kid next

to the building. So he's like, the kid's almost walking in the middle of the street. And he doesn't care. It doesn't seem like someone who genuinely wants to help a child. Yeah. Whoever this man was did not have Zinebs best interest in mind and that is terrifying. So although the footage wasn't much, the family uploaded the video to social media and hopes that someone would recognize the man. And they posted it to every social media platform they had access to along with Zinebs pictures. And the story went absolutely viral in Pakistan in 2018.

Everyone in the nation was looking for the girl with green eyes and the story went absolutely viral in Pakistan in 2018. Everyone in the nation was looking for the girl with green eyes and the bright pink coat. The whole nation rallied behind Zineb and her family and the question was very eerily similar to 2015. Where are the police? What are they doing? Zunezans from all over the country were upset like why are the grieving family members doing all of the work?

If the police are not here to protect us, why are they here? The citizens of Kuzur rallied on the streets for Zineb and from my research, most riots and protests in Pakistan are typically held by men. It's organized by men and the men will do it. As in there aren't really female civilians in the mix, I could be wrong, but from what I could find it might have to do with the more traditional gender roles in a place with a more conservative background. So typically, husbands will ask their wives, sisters, and daughters, can you please stay home, it's dangerous there, I'm gonna go protest.

So like, they're going out as representatives of the family. But for Zineb, there were men basically throwing riots, which I, in this case, very understandable. And in different parts of town, But for Zineb, there were men basically throwing riots, which I, in this case, very understandable. And in different parts of town, women were marching for Zineb. So the men, fathers, brothers, uncle, sons, they smashed police cars, they set fire to police stations,

they threw stones at police and government offices. Meanwhile, the mom, sisters, aunts, and daughters of the city, they march side by side holding up posters of Zineb's face and two bloody handprints. Because blood is on the police's hands. And they demand to dance in actions. The signs read protest. Daughters and Neb, we are ashamed.

But if not now, then never. Others read Zineb in light of your martyrdom. We will seek accountability for all similar events in the past. We will not rest till then. Zineb became the nation's daughter. I think this was a moment that I don't wanna say clicked for people because it's been clicking,

but maybe it was a moment where people were so fed up. Zineb was their mother, their sister, their aunt, their daughter, everyone knew as Zineb been clicking, but maybe it was a moment where people were so fed up. Zineb was their mother, their sister, their aunt, their daughter, everyone knew as Zineb, and everyone fought for his Zineb. And just to clarify, Zineb hadn't been found nor had she been declared dead, but all seven previous victims, all the little girls in the same area that had gone missing, they didn't come back alive. With the exception of one, but the rest, that all been beaten, assaulted,

dumped at trash sites, it had been days since she disappeared, nobody expected to find her alive. Five days later, a civilian founds an abs body at a garbage disposal site. She had been literally dumped, as if she too was garbage. Is civilian found her and not the police? If the police had connected the other cases of all the girls going missing and found near trash disposal sites, you would think that the easiest thing to do

would be monitor all those areas and secretly surveil to see if someone would show up and dump a body there. But they weren't doing that. They weren't doing anything. One of the first citizens on the scene took a picture of Zineb's body at the site. And they posted it on Twitter. I don't know why they would do that.

I imagine it was to shame the police, to rile up the public. I think that in their heads they did it with the best of intentions. But it's a really horrific picture. She was just seven. And obviously I'm not including the picture here, but suffice to say it's bad. And if you do your own research on this case, the photo is not hard to find, so just be where. It's a really depressing. I mean, her body is crumbled up on trash bags and she was partially decomposed.

She was found a hundred meters from her home. That's a one minute walk. I think that just goes to show the police are doing nothing. She was brought in to be autopsy, and it only made things worse there. So little seven-year-olds in aeb, she wore a pink coat, she had her Barbie backpack that was found. This was a little girl that left pink more than anything. Okay, well not more than anything. She loved her family. She loved all of the most, but this is a little girl that loved looking up at the sky because whenever she looked up she would see her dad. And that's how she would find him in the crowd. This is a little girl that loved practicing

writing in her little notebooks and this girl had been tortured. There were torture marks all over her face. Her tongue was crushed between her teeth. She had been beaten and assaulted and sodomized while she was alive and conscious. Whoever did this made sure that she suffered while she was alive. It's speculated that she was kept alive

for 24 to 48 hours. And when they were finished with her, they strangled her and dumped her like trash. Side note, most killers will at least try to hide the bodies. Sometimes they bury the bodies, sometimes they dismember the bodies, and I'm sure you already know, but they at least try to cover it up in some way,

with leaves, bags, boxes, but this killer left all his victims out in the open. That to me suggests cockiness, like a sense of pride. Like this person was proud of what they were doing. There was no shame. He was a-okay with someone finding the bodies. In fact, he wanted the bodies to be found. In the way that he disposed of the girl's bodies,

it's clear he felt like their lives were worthless than a piece of trash. He disposed of them in a way without any sort of shame or remorse. Zineb's family rushed to the scene as soon as they heard, and Nussrat screamed, and she literally had to be held back. Physically held back, because she was screaming at Zinebs to wake up, and she said, please come back.

Your mom is calling, please. Zinebs funeral was held this next day, and a huge crowd of mourners carried her body into the mosque. She would eventually be laid to rest next to her grandmother. Meanwhile, massive protests happened all over the nation. Protesters clashed with the police. Protesters tried to force their way into a police station, and the police met them with

tear gas and batons. And there was this thick smog, this fogging up the air and all you could hear were screams and the sounds of batons hitting flesh. Paramilitary groups were called into a store order and you know should the protesters have forced their way into a police station? No, nobody is saying that but the protesters, they were not armed. The police were and so they at, they fired into the air, which from what I can tell is a scare tactic

that most departments will use. But somewhere, somehow, someone started firing into the crowd. Two protesters were killed, and several more were injured. Only a handful of police officers were arrested, and even then their sentences were not made public. So as far as we know, it could have been a slap on the wrist in like two days in prison. World renowned Pakistani women's education activist

and the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala tweeted about this case, and she used the hashtag, hashtag, justice for Zineb, and this rose to one of the top trending hashtags and this case was now getting international attention. Another Pakistani news anchor went on air, and people were shocked because she's usually very professional, and you turn on your TVs,

and you watch her deliver the news in a very objective manner, but she had her one-year-old daughter sitting on her lap. And she said, today I am not your news anchor. Today I am here as a mother. It is true that they say that the smallest coffins are the heaviest and all of Pakistan is burdened by the weight of the nebbs coffin. Today a tiny corpse is laying on the streets of Kizur and all of Pakistan is crushed by its weight. This day marks the funeral of humanity. Pretty much the whole world was outraged. Everyone wondered out loud, with the families of

the missing girls, would they have gotten justice if they had been rich residents? And I feel like this is a discussion every country has. Zineb's family felt like, yeah, it would have been different. Zineb's dad wrote, Zineb is watching you. Zineb is watching our parliament. Zineb is watching our government. Zineb is watching everyone. The police didn't have a single clue or piece of evidence. If she had been the daughter of a prime minister

or the minister himself, they would have made incredible efforts. So the police, they try something new in hopes of placating the outrage public. They open an investigation. They fire the chief of police trying to blame everything on him. Like, oh, that was the bad guy. We're good now. They put up a $90,000 reward for anyone who had information on the killer, but the public still did not rightfully trust them. So it was clear that they were just

scrambling to rectify their negligence. The authorities, they fly in professional investigators now, and they get straight to work. What do they do? They do everything Zinebs family was already doing. They canvass the area asking questions. They go through all the files of all the missing girls that turned up dead. So at this point, the public who doesn't even

have access to this type of information, they were from the get-go. They're like, these string of disappearances and murders, they're connected, they're freaking connected. But the police are like, well, we don't know. So now these investigators come in and they start testing the DNA that was found on all the girls. And what do you know? It was one singular killer. So now they're caught up to speed with what the public already put together. Like come on now. They start going around and taking DNA samples of every man that they felt fit the criteria of the man on the CCTV footage.

They collected 1,150 samples. They ran them all against the DNA found on the girls. They got to hit. Sample 814 was a match. Arman Ali. The man who watched the elementary school from his rooftop. He was arrested 19 days after Zineb's disappearance. He had shaved off his beard in an attempt to disguise himself, but the DNA did not lie. It was a match to Zineb's body, but all the other thoughts.

That's so freaking crazy, because they could have not lie. It was a match to Zinebs body, but all the other stuff. That's so freaking crazy, because this could have, they could have done that after one first case. Yes. Yeah, because it's still a murder. It seems like if they can find him in 19 days, they could have found him four years ago. Yeah. But they didn't want to do it because I feel like anywhere in the world, most police departments don't want to do much until there's so much pressure.

Now, there's not much information on 23 year old Ali, other than what I've already told you. We do know that he was a part-time construction worker and overall, nobody in his life actually suspected him. Most people saw him as a very religious guy that was always praying. His neighbors saw him the same way, except a few moms.

You know, a few moms had their doubts about him because like, why are you watching the elementary school? It's very unsettling. That's weird. He seemed a little too interested in little girls, but maybe he was bored. Maybe he didn't have friends. Like, that's what people said.

In fact, even his aunt, who lived right next door, she actually got complaints from teachers that Ali was staring at kids, like the teachers would look up during recess and be like, why is that man there again? They complained twice. But the aunt, she said she didn't find his actions alarming. She considered it Eve teasing.

Okay, so this is a huge red flag, and his own aunt thought that him watching elementary school girls was Eve teasing. And hopefully you have no idea what that means. I didn't have any idea what that means. But I had to take a break from all this research and Google some eye bleach because it was just so bad. It's a term that is commonly used in other parts of the world and it's a quite term. A slang word for what is basically sexual harassment.

Wait, what does that mean? So if you're in a different part of the world where people believe in the Eve teasing and you say, Hey, I was just walking past and that guy smacks my butt. They would say, Oh, he's just Eve teasing. The on thinks he's staring at little girls is Eve teasing. Yeah. And that's, oh, that's that's fine. Eve teasing is the same energy as you know how boys are It's just in their nature, but they're not they're not actually bad people. They're not actually dangerous You know how they are when they cat call you us just Eve teasing Yeah, which is crazy

Everyone in Pakistan was like um um, what are you saying? I guess that's why he thinks this is okay. Like the whole family thinks that's okay. That's crazy. It's giving the energy of like, geez, just take the compliment. Don't be so sensitive. It's just eve teasing.

Yeah, I mean, I do think, don't take this as me bashing the aunt. I think it's really sad for the aunt. It feels so ingrained in their family that his own aunt brushed it off as Eve teasing. Can you imagine the amount of harassment that she had to go through probably when she was younger, even a child, like the extent of normalization for her to think that her own nephews actions are normal? So we know that he was a creep. He was unmarried.

He grew up poor. And the only thing that we can concretely know about this urecular know that he was a creep. He was unmarried. He grew up poor. And the only thing that we can concretely know about this year's killer is that he lost his father around 2017. Allegedly, his dad was really sick during that year. And that's interesting when you compare that to his criminal timeline. The murders accelerated dramatically during 2017, suggesting some sort of emotional turmoil. There's also speculation that he and his father didn't get along, and his death might have impacted it in different ways from grief. So this is pure speculation, okay? But there's pure speculation that his father potentially abused him. Listen, I don't know. We don't know any of this for a fact, but it's interesting because

Ali didn't attend his father's funeral service. But the murders amped up when his father was sick. Again, just all speculation, but the criminal timeline with his personal timeline, just fascinating. Now, another thing about Ali is that we can confirm that he had one brother and five sisters. This to me was so startling. I know it doesn't really matter for evil people like this, but I always thought at least to some degree having a lot of women in your life, sisters, mothers, aunts, it typically makes men have, at least a basic appreciation and respect for women, from what I've learned in my personal life, right?

But I guess not for him. So as soon as the news broke that a suspect had been arrested, people start protesting again, not for them to catch the killer, but for public executions to be reinstated. And you have to remember this is a one-soft movement of people who just want to protect their kids. It's coming from a place of, oh my god, I just need to protect women and children.

It's coming from a place of love, regardless of how you feel about it. The police had done such a piss-poor job at keeping criminals away from the city's children. The citizens felt like they had to send a strong message. Think about it. When someone disrespects you over and over again, and you've tried nicely to tell them, hey, cut it out. The next step you would make is to make sure

that you aren't disrespected again. It's to send a strong message. And to citizens, it felt like there was no stronger message for such an urgent issue as a public execution. This would show criminals who were even thinking about committing these crimes. This is what's gonna happen to you. Commit these heinous crimes and the world will see you hate.

Zineb's family also believed in this sentiment that they had to protect the future children. Now, I know it's like a whole debate anytime I bring this up about the death penalty. I don't know where you stand, I don't know where I stand, I don't like to voice my opinion because I don't think I've been involved in a case so personally where I could talk about it like that.

But if there ever was a time for a death penalty to be used, I think it would be for crimes against children, absolutely. Yeah. Like these are the worst kinds of killers. And to be a would be for crimes against children, absolutely. Yeah. Like, these are the worst kinds of killers. And to be a serial killer that only targets children, I would have a hard time advocating for their right to live, right? So to add to that, most people had this hatred for Ali. And allegedly, while the police were interrogating Ali, he forced himself to vomit and pretended to have seizures, told the authorities that he was epileptic, and the authorities were like, well, you know what? Let's just finish the questioning later, go home, rest up, and we'll see you tomorrow,

bro. Twice, they did this twice, and that made the public even more angry. They realized later that he was faking it, and threw him in jail to await his trial. 56 witnesses were brought to testify against Ali. They brought in the DNA evidence, the CCTV footage. They also tracked a cell phone the night that Zineb disappeared and he was at the scene of the crime. Ali was just trying to swim up a creek without a paddle

to put it nicely. Even his first attorney dropped out halfway through the trial on grounds of morality. He said he couldn't do it anymore. His conscience would not let him keep defending Ali after all of this. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. His lawyer was replaced by state funded defense attorney, and he was found guilty. He was handed multiple distances for kidnapping, rape, murder, and an act of terrorism. He did have the legal right to appeal the sentence within 15 days, but it wasn't approved. The courts did reject the public police for a public execution, though,

and Ali was hanged by the end of the year. It's said by those present at the hanging that he showed absolutely no signs of a remorse or guilt. His face was cold and emotionless that it was chilling. This case really changed Pakistan, like, first of all, you had your typical group of vile people that were hithering out of some dark, musty corners somewhere, and there was a small minority of people who took to victim blaming a seven-year-old. Literally. Okay, I don't even know how to follow their train of thought, but it goes something like

this. The majority of Pakistan dresses very modestly, mainly due to religious expectations. And from my limited research and knowledge of Islam, correct me if I'm wrong, girls don't need to cover their hair or wear like a hijab or adhere to strict modesty until puberty comes along. Because they're children. You're not like a woman, right? Or when they get their first period, typically. However, religious doctrine is different from cultural and personal choice. And the only reason I bring this up is because there were some voices in the crowd that were unhinged,

insane, ridiculous, okay? And they said that Zineb was asking for it because she wasn't wearing a hijab. This was a small percentage. Most of Pakistan was looking at them like, are you crazy? Are you crazy right now? And I think it actually in the end worked out okay.

Because think about it, they were the extremist blaming a seven year old. There was a group, a big group in the middle that wouldn't have blamed her because she was seven, but if she was 16, maybe they would have blamed her. If she was 18, they would have blamed her. But because of how vile that reaction was to statements like that, these people actually changed their thinking.

And they thought, no, no, we shouldn't think like this. It doesn't matter, hijab or not, it doesn't matter what they're wearing. Yeah, victim blaming, it's not okay. So it actually turned out okay. I don't wanna say turned out okay, but you get what I'm saying in the end, there was some positive result from a very depressing case.

On top of that, a lot of major changes were made in Pakistan. More and more schools were implementing the good and bad touch programs to educate children. Lots of private and public businesses were putting up CCTV to make it safer for everyone in the city. A tech lab company was founded and they created the app, the Zinev app. It's an app that Pakistani residents can download

and you stay up to date on reports of missing children. You can make your own report if your child goes missing and the app will automatically alert the authorities in the area. According to the app's founder, there are two to four missing persons report made per day on the app, and unfortunately most of them remain unsolved.

Zineb's mom still has Zinebs Barbie pink backpack and her pink puffer jacket. She sleeps on her purple sheets and she said, you know what mothers are like. If someone even slaps your child, it hurts so, so much. I don't think anything has changed in Pakistan. As soon as you turn on the TV, you hear other cases like ours. I can't even watch them.

The children have different names, but I feel like they're saying Zinebs name. Everyone says to have patients, but I ask them, where can I get my patients from? I still feel Zinebs presence everywhere. Zinebs father quit his job and is now dedicating his life to being an advocate for missing an exploited children in Pakistan. And he said, Zineab is a martyr now. She will save us all. Two years after Zanab's death, Pakistan's parliament passed a new law in her honor.

It's called the Zanab Alert Response and Recovery Act. Zara for short. It forms a new federal agency dedicated solely to pursuing cases of child kidnapping, recovering victims, and increasing awareness about essay against children. With the NewsRL law, police are legally required to issue an emergency alert using the emergency broadcasting system to all mobile phones within a 12-mile radius so like an Amber alert.

This law also formed a national database of all missing and recovered children. And that is the story of Zinebb and Zari, the seven-year-old girl who changed Pakistan. Let me know your thoughts on all of this, but please stay safe, and I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!