Two children subjected to ‘sexual assault’

DIJKOT:

Two minor boys including a grade three student were allegedly sexually assaulted on Saturday. Police registered cases and started searching for the suspects.

According to a police report, a six-year-old boy, the son of Botha and nephew of Hanifa Bibi, residents of Chak No 66GB, Jhang Road, was lured by Abbas, Haroon, Al Maroof and four others. The suspects took the minor boy near a graveyard where they to raped him.

Reportedly, the boy was severely injured in the assault. He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.

Separately, a nine-year-old boy, the nephew of Munir Ahmed and a resident of village 30GB on Nadwala Road, was allegedly sexually assaulted by Usman, son of Ali Asghar.

The suspect took the third grade student to his house under the pretext of giving charity money where he raped him.

Police registered separate cases under Sections 377 and 377B of the Penal Code and started raids to arrest the alleged rapists.

Incidents of sexual violence against minors are rampant across the province.

On January 1, a nine-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by two men in Dijkot.

The boy left his home to offer evening prayers at a local mosque when he was approached by the two men. Suspects Mohsin Ali and Mohsin Raza lured him to a nearby government middle school on a motorcycle where they raped him.

When the victim’s father reached the crime scene while searching for his son, the accused saw him and managed to escape.

On December 8 last year, a minor boy was sexually assaulted by three people after he was made to drink a bottle of intoxicant soft drink in Thikriwala.

The victim, after completing his duty in a loom factory, was returning home when the accused Shankar, Shani alias Bala and another unidentified man near Dera Ambahwala Bagh took him with them and made him consume the drink due to which he lost consciousness.

After that, he was taken to Ambahwala Bagh where the three accused raped him. Later, the accused left him unconscious on a motorcycle in the bazaar and fled from the scene. On November 21, 2020, a seven-year-old girl’s body was dumped after her rape in Baghbanpura.

A day earlier, a case of gang rape of a minor was reported in the same area and two suspects identified as Mubashir and Sheraz were booked.

On November 19 last year, a case of sexual assault of an eight-year-old boy was reported in Faisalabad. On November 11, a girl was sexually assaulted in Noshera Virkan. On November 8 last year, 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.

In the first half of last 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.

(THE VICTIMS’ IDENTITIES HAVE NOT BEEN DISCLOSED AS A MATTER OF POLICY)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2021.