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Actor Iqra Aziz is at a loss for words as she joined the country reeling in horror once again this week after police in Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin said they had arrested a suspect on the charge of sexually abusing a nine-month-old girl.

The star posted a story on Instagram on Tuesday saying she has a seven-month-old baby herself and can’t find words to describe what she felt when she came across the news.

Aziz said the only thing she could think to ask was how anyone can do this to a child.

“Why, how and when did some men in Pakistan become so deeply disturbed that they feel entitled to take their frustrations out on women around them? And now, I have to include infants and toddlers in that sentence too.”

The star said she was “disgusted to my core”.

The incident, which the complainant said happened at his house while his wife had gone out to work, left the little girl injured. The suspect is said to have fled as soon as the complainant’s wife returned home.

Aziz said she couldn’t even begin to talk about sex education when people in Pakistan lacked basic awareness of consent, boundaries, safety and respect.

She said she loved Pakistan; it was her home and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the world, but that did not mean she would stay silent about the country’s problems.

She said she wanted to see a country where her children were protected by a functioning system and not just her vigilance as a mother. “A Pakistan where predators are afraid of the law, not where parents are afraid for their children.

“If my children are not safe here, then what am I supposed to do with all this love for my country?”

Sonya Hussaiyn had a similar outlook on the system when she reacted to the incident, saying “Qayamat (the Day of Judgement) will explain why its arrival was necessary”.

“Shame on the system that continues to fail its people,” Hussaiyn said.

This latest incident comes after a string of violent incidents against girls in Pakistan. Just last week, police in Haripur recovered the body of a five-year-old who had been raped and killed.

Earlier in August, police arrested a teenager suspected of raping a toddler in Karachi.

According to a report from child protection NGO Sahil, 1,914 cases of child abuse were reported across the country between January and June 2026, including as many as 1,015 cases of child sexual abuse, 558 cases of abduction, 101 cases of missing children and 35 cases of child marriages.