Film follows journalist Shahbaz Bhatt on his journey to uncover the truth behind the murder of Irfan Masih

Social media was set ablaze yesterday when the official trailer for the upcoming film ‘Gunjal’ released on all platforms, promising to take users on a thrilling journey about one of the darkest cases in Pakistan. We are incredibly happy to witness the Pakistani industry shift its filmmaking approach and step into more complex social issues. Here are some reasons why we’re super excited to watch ‘Gunjal’:

1 It explores the investigation of the murder of prominent children right’s activist Iqbal Masih

For most of our audience members who don’t know Iqbal Masih, he was a vocal critic of abusive child labour in Pakistan, a state he escaped at the age of 10. Because of his protests, Iqbal was able to free more than 3000 children from forced slavery. He visited countries like the US and Sweden where he advocated for an end to bonded labour. However, Iqbal was tragically shot by unknown culprits at the age of 12. But his efforts to eradicate bonded labour didn’t go unnoticed as he posthumously received  World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child in 2000, and later the Sitara-e-Shujaat in 2022 from President Arif Alvi.