HAFIZABAD: The dead body of a five-year-old child first reported missing on Friday was found in a Hafizabad rubbish heap on Saturday.
Police conducted a search to trace the boy after being alerted by his family. The body of the child had been stuffed inside a jute sack and dumped.
Relatives of the deceased said the boy had been killed after being sexually assaulted. Police claimed to have nabbed two suspects. Evidence from the spot has also been collected, officials said.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Human Rights (MOHR) in partnership with Sahil, a nonprofit organisation working on child sexual abuse, released data on a whopping 17, 862 cases of child abuse nationwide since 2013.
In another report, the MOHR claimed Pakistan was not a secure place for children as they continued to face violence everywhere. The most common type of violence experienced by children was psychologically followed by physical violence and sexual abuse.
The research was conducted nationwide to assess the prevalence of violence against children in the sample age group. The data was collected from 948 children, of which 475 were in-school and 473 were out-of-school children. The gender-wise division was 476 boys and 472 were girls.
Furthermore, the report stated that such acts were most often perpetrated by those known to children. “The results indicated that psychological violence was high in all settings and children suffered most psychological abuse at home, followed by schools and at workplaces. Physical violence was the second most reported form of violence and children suffered less physical assault in school as compared to other settings,” the report read.
Statistically, 84% of the children experience psychological assault whereas 74% fall victim to physical violence, while another 3% face sexual abuse in the domestic sphere. Separately, 67% children suffer psychologically, 65% physical, and 2% sexual violence in school, said the report.
“Society must provide necessary social support to all children be the victims of mild or severe violence; no institution or individual, no matter how close or culturally sanctified, they may be allowed to commit violence against children under any pretext or under any justification,” the report concluded.