Minor boy ‘raped’ in Dijkot

A man allegedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy who worked at a local restaurant in Dijkot on Friday. Police said the accused, the owner of a tandoor shop, raped the minor boy after giving him narcotic pills.

Police registered a case and started searching for the accused. In the case registered at Madina Town police station by Razia Bibi, the widow of Muhammad Iqbal, a resident of Chak No 530GB, it had been stated that her 12-year-old son was working at Asghar Ali's restaurant near Lahore Naan Shop, Susan Road. Asghar sexually assaulted him by giving him drugs.

The accused also threatened the minor boy that if he told anyone about it, he would be fired and killed. Madina Town police registered a case against the accused under Section 377 TPP and started raids to arrest him. Several cases of child sexual abuse were reported across the province during the current year.

On November 21, a sevenyear-old girl’s body was dumped after her rape in Baghbanpura, Lahore. A day earlier, a case of gang rape of a minor was reported in the same area, where two suspects identified as Mubashir and Sheraz were booked. On November 19, the case of sexual assault of an eightyear-old boy was reported in Faisalabad.

On November 18, a sixyear-old boy was allegedly sexually assaulted by four persons after his abduction in Dholan-Motra village, Daska tehsil, Sialkot. Four persons kidnapped the minor boy and took him to the nearby fields where they molested him turn-by-turn. Later the accused fled the crime scene, leaving the child in a critical condition. On November 17, a suspect named Suleman was arrested on ten charge of sexual assault on a minor girl in Iqbal Town, Lahore.

On the same day, an influential landlord had allegedly raped and murdered a minor girl in Sargodha. The heinous crime took place in the suburbs of Bhalwal from where the body of an eight-year old girl was found. Similarly, a five-year-old boy was allegedly subjected to sexual abuse in Faisalabad’s Pathanwala neighbourhood. The suspect managed to flee after sexually abusing the minor.

In another incident, a seven-year-old boy was subjected to sexual abuse in Lahore’s Shahdara locality. On November 11, a 14-yearold boy was murdered after sexual assault in Shadbagh, Lahore. On the same day, a girl was sexually assaulted in Noshera Virkan. On November 8, a student was murdered after sexual assault in Mandi Bahauddin. A report by Sahil, a non-governmental organisation, revealed that at least eight children fell victim to sexual abuse daily on average in the country.

On September 25, a minor boy was allegedly sexually assaulted in Faisalabad. On May 23, a teenage girl was gang-raped by five men after being abducted in Landianwala area of Faisalabad. As per details, on the night of the incident, an unknown armed man entered the victim’s house by climbing the wall, woke up the family at gunpoint and began searching their rooms.

He looted Rs50,000 cash and gold jewelry from a trunk and also abducted the teenage girl on a motorcycle for sexually assaulting her. In the first half of the current year, at least 1,489 children were subjected to sexual assault. In the first half of 2019, at least seven children were raped per day in the country, as a total of 1,304 cases of child sexual abuse were reported during the period.