London, April 15 (IANS) Child abuse in Pakistan remains widespread, encompassing physical, sexual, and emotional violence, as well as exploitation through child labour and trafficking. Despite existing legal frameworks, entrenched stigma, weak enforcement, and cultural barriers continue to hinder reporting, leaving thousands of cases unreported every year, a report detailed this week.
According to UK-based ‘Asian Lite’, on February 2, Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) uncovered one of the country’s most alarming and far-reaching child exploitation cases – a sprawling online network – following the arrest of a man in Rawalpindi allegedly involved in trapping and blackmailing minors through fake social media identities.
“Investigators recovered more than 600 indecent videos of children from his devices, revealing a pattern in which he posed as a girl on Instagram to lure boys, record explicit material, and then threaten to leak it unless they sent more. The inquiry found he had targetted multiple minors using the same method and was in active contact with accomplices to share, buy, and sell child sexual abuse material. The case exposes the terrifying scale of online child exploitation in Pakistan and the ease with which predators can manipulate and harm children through digital platforms,” the report mentioned.
“Just weeks prior, in what appears to be the most extensive case of child abuse uncovered in Karachi, police arrested a suspected serial predator whose alleged crimes span several years and dozens, possibly even more than a hundred, young victims. Taken into custody on January 17, 2026 in Surjani Town, the man is accused of abducting boys aged 10 to 14 from different neighbourhoods, assaulting them, and returning them to the same locations. DNA evidence has already linked him to at least seven cases between 2020 and 2025, while multiple children have identified him,” it added.
Citing a fact sheet released by Islamabad-based Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) using district-level police data on November 25, 2025, the report paints a devastating picture of child protection in Pakistan’s Punjab province, where over 4,150 cases of violence against children were reported in just the first six months of 2025.
The data indicates that an average of 23 children are subjected to violence every single day in the province.
The report further noted that despite thousands of FIRs and challans, convictions remain extremely low with only 12 recorded across all categories.
“Sexual abuse alone accounted for 717 cases with zero convictions. Trafficking, labour exploitation, physical abuse, kidnapping, and child marriage all showed similarly bleak outcomes, with most cases stuck in trial and many crimes severely underreported. Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, and Sialkot emerged as major hotspots, underscoring systemic failures in prevention, investigation, and prosecution,” it stated.
–IANS
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