Kanwal Parveen must have felt exhilarated and relieved as she entered her maternal uncle’s home on September 14, 2020, 10 years after her marriage to a man of her own choice. Her uncle had invited her to the birth of his son, ending a long estrangement with her family.

As she got them ready to visit the family for the first time, Kanwal must have excitedly told her three children stories from her childhood and about her family. Little did she know that this would be the last time she would set foot in her uncle’s house.

Around 4:30pm that day, Kanwal entered her uncle’s house located in village 104 South in the suburbs of Sargodha, minutes before a horrific crime took place. Kanwal’s husband Imran later told the police that, at the entrance of the house, Kanwal, Imran and their children met her uncle’s neighbour Muhammed Waqas and Kanwal’s nine-year-old nephew.

According to Imran, Kanwal had asked Waqas what he was doing there. To which Waqas had replied that he was training the child to murder Kanwal because she had dishonoured her family by eloping with Imran.

A progress report provided by Police Station Saddar, Sargodha states that “according to Imran’s statement, Kanwal and Waqas exchanged hot words. Waqas then swiftly handed a 30 bore pistol to the child and, taking the child’s name, said, ‘Student, take your aim at Kanwal Parveen.’ The child took the weapon, aimed directly at Kanwal, pulled the trigger, and hit her in the middle of her forehead. She fell and we stood stunned, not knowing what to do. Then Waqas took the child’s hand and walked out of the house where a man called Ahsanallah (Chadho) was waiting with a motorcycle and the trio fled the crime scene.”

Kanwal died on the spot.

According to the progress report provided by the police, the child was arrested 10 days later. The police decided not to charge Ahsanallah and later released him.

When a nine-year-old pulls the trigger on his aunt, the burden of his crime no doubt lies with his trainers and his parents. But it is also important to consider the repercussions on his and his cousins’ future mental health

“The child was taken into custody but he is now back with his parents,” says police Sub-Inspector Muhammad Abid, pointing out he was a minor. “He was released on bail after two months.”

While the child has not said anything publicly about the act he committed, the enabler of the murder, Muhammad Waqas has absconded. He had originally applied for interim bail from Lahore High Court, but that ended on December 4. The police are now conducting raids to locate him.

Kanwal was killed by a nephew she had never met, as he was born after she had left for her husband’s house. The fatal shot that ended her life must have rung through her ears before piercing her body. If death gave her time, she would have seen an unfamiliar child standing with a gun, pointed at her — a child who had been trained for a whole year to commit this murder.

However, the way the child reacted to Waqas’s command indicates that he had been completely brainwashed and was under the control of the older man. He has been desensitised — and dehumanised — to murder on command.

A murder is a heinous crime but when it is committed by a child, the dimensions of the crime change. Generally, society works under the concept of doli incapax — the ‘presumption in law that a child is incapable of forming the criminal intent to commit an offence’. In this case, the burden of this crime lies with his trainer and parents. Society also tries to make all efforts to protect children from crime.

Pakistan is one of 160 countries that has enacted legislation that prohibits the sentencing of and the imposition of death penalty against juvenile offenders. It is part of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which protect juvenile offenders from capital punishment.

Juveniles are not given death sentences under the presumption that a child up to the age of 10 cannot be held responsible for committing a crime. Commenting on this, high court advocate Ameer Uddin says, “After amendment in Section 82 PPC in 2016, a child up to age of 10 cannot be held responsible for any crime. And now there is [also] a Juvenile Justice System Act 2018.

“The child used in the Sargodha murder cannot be held responsible for a crime that was conducted under the supervision of adults, who bear full responsibility of the intention behind the crime,” he adds. “The intent of using a child reveals that the person is using the immunity that a child enjoys under law.”

Ameer Uddin points out that the child was used as a tool or instrument by the criminals who were aware of what the act was and what the consequences would be for such a crime.

“A person or persons who uses a child for a crime by exploiting the child’s immunity should be investigated, tried by a court of law and sentenced for the crime, as prescribed by law, as in the Sargodha case. The court can award the death penalty or life sentence [to the adults] under Section 302 PPC,” he adds.

The child also needs to undergo psychological evaluation and rehabilitation before being integrated into society as a productive member. “Children above the age of 10 and under the age of 18 can’t be sent to jail but to rehabilitation centres, according to the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018,” says Ameer Uddin. “However, the adults involved in this crime should be investigated.”

“The child was probably trained to believe that he was defending the honour of the family,” says Dr Uroosa Talib, head of medical services at Karwan-i-Hayat, an institute for psychiatric care and rehabilitation in Karachi. “This probably gave him a sense of achievement, despite not being able to understand the huge implications of ‘honour’ and its link to ‘murder’. He must have developed hatred against his aunt and other females which may result in poor impulse control, lack of empathy or sympathy. Sociopathic traits such as bullying his own age group or younger groups, are also more likely to develop in his personality.”

Dr Talib stresses that it is important to assess how this child expresses himself with his family and others.

“His life needs to be evaluated as to how his behaviour pattern was before he committed this act and afterwards. The changes should be compared to see how he is handling life after murdering someone. Basically, this assessment is required to find out the level of emotional and mental damage he has endured,” she explains.

“The child is too young to be blamed for this action but there are chances that he may commit similar crimes in the future, as he will be living with the same people in the same environment. However, there are ways to protect him from committing any crime in the future, if his psychotherapy and his family’s counselling takes place regularly, especially in his teenage years, to find out traces of damage or any negative development.”

Dr Talib suggests that a holistic rehabilitation programme must be designed for him by a forensic psychiatrist and psychologist based on different life domains such as classroom behaviour, conflict resolution and violence prevention, bullying prevention, community intervention etc.

According to the police and confirmed by two local journalists, both parties have decided to settle the case out of court.

Since the Sargodha families are considering an out-of-court settlement on the issue, it remains to be seen what happens in the future when Kanwal’s two sons, who witnessed the gruesome murder, grow up.

The court could assign a therapist for all four children to help them through this and help them to deal with their emotions, though given the scarcity of such resources in Pakistan — especially in the rural areas — this is unlikely to be implemented. Nevertheless, Kanwal’s children will need help to find closure and how to deal with emotions such as anxiety, fear and anger. They will also need help to deal with the fact that their mother’s murderer may not only be free, but remain unpunished. To their young minds, that could feel like the worst injustice.

As for the child who pulled the trigger, he will obviously need long-term therapy to undo the damage to his mind and personality. It will be a long journey for him to heal and live a normal life.

The writer is a freelance journalist focusing on human rights, social issues, women and children

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 20th, 2020