PESHAWAR, Aug 9: Family members of the victims of sexual assault in the Frontier province have begun registering cases unlike a few years ago, when people hesitated to report such cases to police for fear of social repercussions.

“We registered only a couple of cases of sexual assault a few years ago. People avoided lodging FIRs in such cases because of social problems, but now the situation has changed considerably and people readily lodge cases,” said officials at the police laboratory.

“We are now receiving about 25 cases of rape and sodomy every month from almost all the districts of the province,” said the police officials.

Because of increasing awareness, more people were now willing to register such cases, they said.

“As of July 31, we have received about 150 cases of sexual assault during the year from all the 24 districts in the province, especially Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar, Nowshera and Bannu,” the officials said.

The ages of women victims were from 11 to 50 years, whereas the ages of boys were six to 18 years, they said.

The officials said most of the cases had been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination belatedly, which affected the findings.

They said that some of the perpetrators got away with the crime because of improper investigations, as the courts accepted only scientific evidence.

They said the specimens should be collected by trained health staff, preferably lady doctors.

They pointed out the police stations sent the physical examination reports of the victims with the specimens by hand. They suggested that the reports and specimens should be sent for analysis immediately.