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

26:24She was found assaulted, tortured, and murdered. Her father said that he could not 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.

27:00So another, probably a little boy, right? And up until this point, there were whispers of this shadowy boogeyman, 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. Iman 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 going to kill you. Count to a certain number by the time that the cousin turned around iman 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 iman was found tortured assaulted and murdered she was the third five-year-old victim in three years just two months later a six-year-old girl goes missing kidnapped from a grocery store did the little boy saw his face yeah but he couldn't really make out much the thing about um 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.

28:28He 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 Quran 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 going to 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 is going to come cannot.

29:47If 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 in broad 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 Zineb. Have you heard of the Hajj. So the Hajj is the journey to Mecca that every Muslim should make at least once in their lifetime if they're physically and financially able, according to the Quran.

30:24And 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 7th century. We're in the 21st century. It dates back to the 7th 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.

31:03Muslims 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 Hajj or even how it feels to be there. But I asked a friend who has done the Hajj 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.

31:46So 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, I find that so fascinating. But anyway, he said to be in Mecca is this opportunity for each Muslim to cleanse their soul of past sins and just find protection from the burdens of life. And they're spending time with Allah and it's like such a vulnerable experience.

32:24He said to be there surrounded by that many fellow Muslims and that focused 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 to 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 Hajj. It happens once a year. Millions of Muslims will come all over the world to stay in Mecca for about a week.

33:04Okay, that's the Hajj. 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 Hajj, 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.

33:40They'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 aunt 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-in-law was saying over the phone, but she saw her husband's body stiffen and his eyes were usually this very soft, inviting green color and they just made you feel so safe. But now they looked so wide, almost frantic, that it was starting to scare her a little bit.

34:20And 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. When? For how long? Where? Why was nobody with her? Who was her guide? Nosrat just had this queasy feeling in her stomach, like when you're on a roller coaster 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.

34:54And 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 Zaneb she's missing they were told that Zaneb 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 going to take you to and from there just in case you know you're seven mainly because the streets are so busy it was very easy to get lost in the crowd so Zaneb's cousin grabbed his little cousin's hand tightly and stepped off the doorstep.

35:41He 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 is 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 is to bump into a senior.

36:17So little by little, he's like scanning constantly busy. There's so much stimulation going on and he felt Zineb's 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 puffer coats and his line of sight is more blocked. Now, respect aside, he's pushing through the crowd now.

36:54He's like pushing, looking for her pink puffer coat. She should be standing out. he thought maybe their 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 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 gotta help me.

37:28They all run out looking for Zanet. They go door to door. Neighbors start canvassing the area for them. The aunt and uncle, 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, Zaneb's family had to take matters into their own hands.

38:06Her 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 Zineb, 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 Zineb and they pass out pictures of Zineb. 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?

38:47And it just felt like everyone but the police were looking for Zineb. Nusrat and her 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 they had to 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 empty-handed and I don't know anything about religion okay I'm not religious like I said but I do think that um I think we can all agree that just the human experience is so painful at times especially in situations like this and there's a poem that really encapsulates that so in the same area 250 years before Nusrat 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.

40:20I have become the beloved myself. Whom shall I call the beloved now? Tear down the mosque if you must, tear down the temple, tear down 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 zineb's mom zineb was born in 2010 and she had a very traumatic birth there were a lot of light threat life-threatening complications and as soon as zineb popped out of her doctors wheeled nusrat 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.

41:05And 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 the 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 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 nisrat 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's like pink pink pink pink everything was pink she loved pink pink everything pink jacket pink shoes pink Barbie backpack, pink notebooks.

42:01Purple was acceptable. Sometimes purple was liked, but pink? Oh yeah, that was her thing. Okay. So she had like purple bedsheets, but everything else, pink. And she would have this little diary where she would write, I am a girl. My name is Zaneb. 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.

42:42And behind them, like little baby ducks were three girls, just everywhere he went, they would just follow him around like three, like a little tail, a little shadow. And it was very heartwarming to see. I mean, cause 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. The kids loved them so much. Which is why I think the neighborhood really came together, and they searched endlessly for Zineb. When her parents landed back home, they were filled in on everything, and they hit the ground running.

43:20Then the security footage was uncovered.

43:27like I mentioned earlier, Zaneb 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, 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 robes. On top of that, he was, by the footage, the most average-looking man in Punjab. His height was average. His build was average.

43:59He wore average clothes. He had an average haircut. 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. Zineb 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.

44:56I 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 whoever this man was did not have Zineb's best interests in mind and that is terrifying so although the footage wasn't much the family uploaded the video to social media in hopes that someone would recognize the man and they posted it to every social media platform they had access to along with Zineb's 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 bright pink coat.

45:49The 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? So netizens 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 Kizur 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.

46:29So typically husbands will ask their wives, sisters and daughters, can you please stay home? It's dangerous there. I'm going to 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 women were marching for Zineb so the men fathers brothers uncles 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 marched side by side holding up posters of Zineb's face and two bloody handprints because blood is on the police's hands and they demanded answers and actions the signs read protest daughter Zineb 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 want to say clicked for people because it's been clicking, but maybe it was a moment where people were so fed up.

47:45Zineb was their mother, their sister, their aunt, their daughter. Everyone knew Zineb and everyone fought for 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, they'd 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 found Zineb's body at a garbage disposal site. She had been literally dumped as if she too was garbage.

48:25The 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.

49:04But 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 beware. It's 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. What? I think that just goes to show the police are doing nothing. She was brought in to be autopsied and it only made things worse there. So little seven-year-old Zineb, she wore a pink coat. She had her Barbie backpack that was found.

49:43This was a little girl that loved pink more than anything. Okay, well, not more than anything. She loved her family. She loved Allah 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.

50:19It'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.

50:51In fact, he wanted the bodies to be found. In the way that he disposed of the girls' bodies, it's clear he felt like their lives were worth less than a piece of trash. He disposed of them in a way without any sort of shame or remorse. Zaneb's family rushed to the scene as soon as they heard, and Nasrat screamed, and she literally had to be held back, physically held back, because she was screaming at Zaneb to wake up, and she said, please come back. Your mom is calling, please. Please. Zineb's funeral was held the 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.

51:30Meanwhile, massive protest 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 in to restore 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 first they fired into the air, which from what I can tell is a scare tactic that most departments will use.

52:09But 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 Zaneb 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.

53:04Today, 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 Zineb's coffin. Today, a tiny corpse is laying on the streets of Khazur 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, would 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.

53:45Zineb 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 outraged 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 zineb's family was already doing they canvas the area asking questions they go through all the files of all the missing girls that turned up dead.

54:37So 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.

55:10They collected 1 ,150 samples. They ran them all against the DNA found on the girls. They got a hit. Sample 814 was a match. Irman 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 girls That's so freaking crazy Because this could have They could have done that After one girl The 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.

56:09Now, 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.

56:39In fact, even his aunt who lived right next door, she actually got complaints from teachers that Ollie 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 coy term a slang word for what is basically sexual harassment Wait, what does that mean?

57:23So if you're in a different part of the world where people believe in 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 aunt 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. Wow. You know how they are. When they catcall you, it's just Eve teasing. Yeah, which is crazy. Everyone in Pakistan was like, what are you saying?

58:07I 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 nephew's 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 serial killer is that he lost his father around 2017.

58:50Allegedly, 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 in different ways from grief. So this is pure speculation, OK? 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.

59:24Again, 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.

1:00:04And you have to remember, this is a once-off 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, is to send a strong message.

1:00:41And 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 going to happen to you. Commit these heinous crimes and the world will see you hanged. 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.

1:01:17But 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 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 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 his 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.

1:02:21He 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 a state-funded defense attorney, and he was found guilty. He was handed multiple death sentences 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 pleas 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 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 corner somewhere.

1:03:11And 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 extremists 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 were wearing yeah victim blaming it's not okay yeah so it actually turned out okay well i don't want to 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 zineb 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 zineb's barbie pink backpack and her pink puffer jacket.

1:05:29She 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 Zaneb's name. Everyone says to have patience, but I ask them, where can I get my patience from? I still feel Zaneb's presence everywhere. Zaneb's father quit his job and is now dedicating his life to being an advocate for missing and exploited children in Pakistan.

1:06:02And he said, Zaneb is a martyr now. She will save us all. Two years after Zaneb's death, Pakistan's parliament passed a new law in her honor. It's called the Zaneb 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 SA against children. With the new Zara 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.

1:06:40And that is the story of Zineb Ansari, 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.