LAHORE: Over 750 child abuse cases were registered in 2017, with children mostly aged between 3 and 15 years, reported a local English daily.
The cases mostly took place in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Kasur and Rawalpindi.
According to the report, fresh figures for child abuse came to the forefront when the Punjab investigation branch authorities, in the wake of the Kasur incident, collected a record of the cases of crimes committed against children across the province.
Punjab police high-ups reportedly had no data about these crimes before the Kasur event. During initial analysis, however, they found out that a 30 per cent surge was seen in 2017 as compared to 2016.
Most of such cases reported across Punjab involve kidnapping of children for sexual assault or forced labour, according to the report. A total of 6,793 children were kidnapped from various cities of the province during the last six years.
12,736 kidnap cases were registered across the province in 2017 as compared to 12,526 in 2016. However, according to the police authorities, most of the cases of children’s abduction had been resolved.
