Shangla police on Tuesday arrested two suspects for allegedly raping a 10-year-old school girl in Lilonai area of Shangla district.

According to the FIR registered against the two suspects a day earlier, the girl came to Alpuri police station along with her father and reported that the two men had raped her on Sept 5 when she was returning from school to home.

“Both the accused caught me and took me to cornfields where they sexually assaulted me,” the school girl said.

She further said in her statement that after sexually assaulting her, the two men showed her a knife and gave her Rs200. The victim said that the two warned her of death if she revealed her ordeal to anyone.

According to the girl, she could not immediately tell anyone since her parents were not home. She said she informed her parents about the rape after they returned.

Police spokesman, Umar Rehman, told Dawn that doctors in the district headquarters hospital in Alpuri have confirmed to police that the girl was raped. He said police lodged an FIR under sections 376, 506, 48 and 53, and investigation is underway.

Reported cases of child abuse in the country increased by 11 per cent in year 2018 compared to 2017, with more than 10 children suffering some form of abuse every day in Pakistan last year, a report released by the NGO Sahil revealed.