LAHORE, Aug 21: The Punjab Child Protection Bureau on Monday took into custody four sisters, aged between nine month and 11 year, allegedly abandoned by their father at Data Ganj Bukhsh shrine.

The bureau said in a statement that officials of its Open Reception Center at the shrine reported to its team about the girls.

The team took the sisters in custody, who said they belonged to Lahore.

They added that they, together with their father, lived in a rented house.

As their father had been unable to pay the house rent for some months, the owner evicted them two days ago. “Our father left us at the shrine and never returned,” the statement quoted the sisters as saying. It said the girls’ mother had died some years ago.

Chief Minister’s adviser on child rights Dr Faiza Asghar said the bureau had provided shelter to around 2,000 children in the last one year.

The bureau would do everything possible to make these children respectable citizen, she added.