ISLAMABAD: The rape and murder of eight-year-old Zainab a week ago in Pakistan's Kasur has left a nation shocked and angry. Amid protests on the streets and on social media, a Pakistani anchor has touched hearts with an unusual gesture.
On Wednesday evening, Kiran Naz of Pakistan's Samaa TV presented the news with her little daughter sitting on her lap, conveying a parent's grief.
"Today I am not Kiran Naz. Today I am a mother. That's why I am sitting with my daughter," Ms Naz said in her brief introduction before the channel's 7 pm news bulletin on Wednesday.
The anchor went on to share her outrage over Zainab's tragedy, mostly her sheer frustration as a parent that there had been no progress in tracking down the killer.
"I have nothing else to talk about today, except Zainab," she said at the end of a nearly two-minute-long clip.
"It is true that a child's corpse is the heaviest. Today Pakistan is buried beneath the burden of the little one's janaza (funeral)..." Naz said, choking up.
The video was shared on Twitter by Samaa TV's Omar R Quraishi.