Sindh police trained to deal with cases of crimes against children

KARACHI: A week-long training was given to Sindh Police officers, in light of recent cases of high-profile abduction, murder, and sexual exploitation of children in Sindh and Punjab, concluded on Friday.



The urgent need for more robust training resources for investigators assigned cases relating to crimes against children in Karachi and the rest of the province was identified during the week.

The training, 'Child Abductions and Forensic Interviewing', was organised by the United States Consulate in Karachi and the curriculum was specially developed for the Sindh Police investigators and Karachi prosecutors by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's violent crimes against children section's child abduction rapid deployment team and victim services division.

The Sindh Police's training unit hosted the week-long training at their modern training facility at the Central Police Office in Karachi.

This training will further equip the Sindh Police with unique skill sets and provide additional resources that will increase its capacity to protect the children of the province.

According to statistics compiled by an NGO, Sahil, in 2017, there were over 3,345 children reported as victims of sexual abuse in Pakistan. The report further indicated that 2,077 of the victims were girls and 1,368 boys.

Approximately 1,039 children were victims of abductions; and 36 girls and 29 boys were brutally murdered and in some cases even tortured after they were sexually abused or exploited.  A majority of the cases reported in Pakistan were from Punjab (2,186) and Sindh (933) provinces.



As of August 2018, Sahil reported 2,322 child abuse cases from January to June, 2018.  A review of the 2018 case statistics revealed that 542 children were abducted.  During the same period, approximately 57 children were reported as being murdered after being abducted and sexually abused.  Of the 2,322 cases reported, 56% of the victims were girls and 44% boys.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2018.