Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the removal of four top Punjab provincial police officers for failing to arrest the culprits who allegedly sexually assaulted and killed three minor boys.
Police recovered the bodies of the three boys on Tuesday in Kasur district, some 50 kms from Lahore. The incident enraged the residents, who blocked roads in Chunian and burned tyres.
They also surrounded the Chunian police station and pelted stones.
Some of the protesters also tried to burn the police station to vent their anger. The protesters dispersed when a senior police officer told them that some 12 suspects have been taken into custody and police will soon arrest the main culprits.
The minors went missing last month. Local people claim a racket is behind the killing of minor boys after rape.
The outcry caused by the incident compelled Prime Minister Khan to order the removal of all top police officers of Kasur and arrest of the culprits.
The District Police Officer, Kasur Abdul Ghafaar Qaisrani, and SHO in Kasur had been removed and that a major change in the local police ranks was on the cards," the Geo News reported. Police have arrested 12 suspects and sent their DNA samples for forensic examination.
According to Sahil, an NGO working on child abuse cases, in the first six months of current year some1,300 cases of sexual abuse of children have been reported in the country.
"Seven children are abused daily," it says.
The data from January to June in 2019 reveals that 729 girls and 575 boys became victims of sexual exploitation. The cases under major categories included 378 of abduction, 139 of rape, 153 of sodomy, 46 of gang rape, 88 of gang sodomy whereas 12 boys and four girls have been murdered after sexual abuse.
In 2018, there were 3,307 such incidents reported to police, 39 cases were not reported and 56 cases were not registered.
In Lahore, there were 50 incidents reported last year while nine children had been abducted and 12 reported missing from January to June 2019.
January to June data gave grim numbers as it included five incidents of rape, seven of sodomy, three of gang rape and five of gang sodomy.
"There were other incidents in which three boys and as many girls were murdered after gang rape, sodomy and rape, 186 children were found missing from their homes while there were 40 cases of early child marriage and one case of Vani," Ansar Sajjad Bhatti, the senior regional coordinator of Sahil, said.
The most common perpetrator of the child sex abuse was an acquaintance with the victim and the victim's family. Out of a total of 1,300 cases, 614 cases were such where the abusers had acquaintance with victims or victim's family.
In all, 142 cases were reported in which strangers were involved in abusing children, the report said.
In the last few years, Kasur has been rocked by multiple incidents of abuse, rape and the murder of children.
In January 2018, a six-year-old girl was found dead in a trash heap near Shahbaz Khan Road, five days after she went missing. Her death had sparked nationwide protests and outrage.
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