The child does not know. At two, Suzzaine Shakeel is not supposed to know. His laughter breaks the monotony of grief in the room. He runs around, pulls his aunt’s phiran and jumps into the lap of his father. For a moment, he plays with the keys of his father’s car. Then he grabs the newspaper. The tragic tale of rape and murder of his mother Neelofar and aunt Asiya fills the pages, but he’s too small to read. He looks for his mother in the pictures. “Mama, Mama” — he repeats, unaware that the group of women in the newspaper are, in fact, protesting in the town against the rape and murder of his mother and aunt.

“He is fine during the days,” Suzzaine’s father Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar says. “Nights are a nightmare. He doesn’t stop crying and keeps on asking for his mother. I don’t know what to tell him.”

On May 29, when Shakeel’s wife Neelofar, 22, and his younger sister Asiya, 17, left for the family’s newly acquired apple orchard, Suzzaine had not accompanied them. He had not even seen his mother leave. That evening, the two women walked four km from their Bonigam neighbourhood across the Rambiyar stream to get to their orchard. They never returned. Their bodies were found dumped in the stream at separate spots.

“My life has suddenly come to an end. There is nothing left,” Shakeel says. Suzzaine starts pulling his collar, asking him to take him out on a drive. “Gadi, gadi (car, car),” he insists. His aunt Romi takes him out. The mood in the room is somber again.

... contd.