HARIPUR: The Haripur police have computerised the data of the residents named in child abuse cases during the last five years saying the initiative is meant to protect the children from sexual assault.

District police officer Dr Zahidullah Jan told reporters here on Tuesday that the database had the details of the people booked under Section 377 of the PPC or Section 53 of the KP CP&W Act, 2010, including their pictures, families, friends, traits, and jobs.

He said 193 paedophiles had been identified in the district with some of them being nominated in the child abuse FIRs more than once.

The DPO said even the names of the child abuse accused, who made a compromise with their victims’ families, had been compiled.

He said all 193 residents named the FIR of sodomy and child abuse in the last five years would have to report to their respective police stations every fortnight and would leave their respective districts only after formally informing the police.

DPO says initiative to help protect children

Dr Zahidullah said the exercise would help the police and parents protect children from sexual abuse.

He said the police had asked all public and private schools and colleges to share the particulars of the drivers taking students from home to schools and back so that their movements and habits could be monitored.

The DPO said residents should share the ‘evidence’ of child abuse in own areas with the police.

He said the names of such people would be kept secret and they would be provided with ‘complete’ security.

Dr Zahidullah said the initiative was unprecedented in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The DPO, a former physician, said the reporting of child sexual abuse carried a trauma and social stigma for victims, so such cases were always underreported.

He said he had ensured that the identity of abuse victims shouldn’t be made public as required by the child protection laws.

“The police confidence of the public and the exercise of FIR lodging against paedophiles witnessed an increase compared to the last year’s,” he claimed.

The DPO said the Haripur police had registered 22 cases under Section 377 of PPC and Section 53 of the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act, 2010, last year compared with 10 FIRs in 2018.

He said the increase in the reporting of offences had showed that unlike the past, the people wanted criminals punished.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2020