London, March 8 (IANS) Child abuse in Pakistan remains pervasive, with cases being reported of physical, sexual, and emotional violence and widespread exploitation through child labour and trafficking, but despite several legislative measures like the Zainab Alert and Recovery and Response Act of 2020, the country continues to have low conviction rates in child abuse cases, as per a report.

“On February 2, 2026, in what appears to be one of Pakistan’s most alarming and far‑reaching child‑exploitation cases, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) uncovered a sprawling online network after arresting a Rawalpindi man 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,” Sakariya Kareem wrote in a report in UK-based daily The Asian Lite.

The investigation revealed that the suspect had targeted several minors using the same method. The case showcases the scale of online child exploitation in Pakistan and the ease with which predators can manipulate and harm children using digital platforms. Just weeks before, police arrested a suspected serial predator who had allegedly committed crimes for several years and included a hundred young victims.

The man, arrested in Surjani Town on January 17, is accused of kidnapping boys aged between 10 and 14 years from different neighbourhoods, harassing them and shifting them to different locations, according to a report in Asian Lite. DNA evidence has already connected him to at least seven cases between 2020 and 2025, and several children have identified him.

In June last year, police in Muzaffargarh area of Pakistan’s Punjab uncovered yet another horrifying child‑pornography case, revealing that several young children were targeted, abused, and secretly filmed inside a gaming club that had become a trap for minors. The investigators revealed that the suspect exploited several children from Sardarabad village by using the recorded video to blackmail them, a pattern that was noticed after a victim reached out for help.

Kareem wrote, “Child abuse in Pakistan remains pervasive, spanning physical, sexual, and emotional violence, as well as widespread exploitation through child labour and trafficking. Despite existing laws, entrenched stigma, weak enforcement, and cultural barriers continue to suppress reporting, leaving thousands of cases hidden each year. The NGO Sahil has repeatedly warned of the scale of the crisis: in 2023, its data showed that an average of 12 children one every two hours were sexually abused daily, with most victims between the ages of six and fifteen and boys outnumbering girls.”

Pakistan continues to have low conviction rates in child abuse cases despite legislative measures taken like the Zainab Alert, Recovery and Response Act of 2020 and the expansion of child protection courts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2021, according to the report. The problem lies less in the absence of laws and more in the systemic failures, as investigative processes are often weak, inconsistent, or poorly supervised, resulting in flawed evidence collection and cases that collapse in court. Furthermore, children often do not reveal abuse due to fear, shame, or the belief that they will be blamed.

–IANS

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