The Rawalpindi police registered a case and arrested two men for allegedly raping their 14-year-old niece, it emerged on Saturday.

Rawal Division Superintendent of Police Ziauddin told Dawn.com that the case was registered on his instructions and a raid was conducted on the suspects' house from where they were arrested.

The case was registered at Ratta Amral police station on the complaint of the councillor of Dhok Hassu's union council, Shazia Sajid, under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the first information report (FIR) registered on November 5, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the lady councillor said that she had received information about a girl who had fled her home and was staying at another person's residence.

"I immediately reached the house [where she was staying] and collected the girl from there who said her name was M* [...] she told me her maternal uncles — K* and F* — used to rape her upon getting the opportunity," the FIR quoted her as saying.

Sajid said she had brought the girl to the police station and requested that an FIR be registered and legal proceedings be initiated against the suspects.

Talking to Dawn.com, M* alleged that her two uncles used to sexually assault her and she had barely managed to escape her home.

The councillor said that signs of torture were apparent on the girl's body when she had inspected her. "The girl shared everything with me about repeatedly being abused," she added.

The Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) took notice of the incident and took the girl in its custody. CPWB District Officer Ali Abid Naqvi reached the Ratta Amral police station on the orders of CPWB chairperson Sarah Ahmad.

"There will be a medical [inspection] carried out of the girl. The girl will be provided complete legal protection," he said.

Last month, two children were allegedly sexually assaulted in two separate incidents in Rawalpindi's Kahuta and Jatli areas, according to police reports.

In September, a person complained to the police that a seminary teacher had allegedly sexually assaulted and tortured his younger brother in the limits of Waris Khan police area.

'8 children abused daily'

As many as 2,960 major crimes against children were reported in the four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) in 2020.

According to data released by the NGO Sahil, eight children were abused every day in Pakistan in one form or the other, while 51 per cent of the victims were girls and 49pc boys.

Out of the reported cases, 985 were of sodomy, 787 rape, 89 pornography and child sexual abuse and 80 were of murder after sexual abuse. Cases of abduction, missing children and child marriages were 834, 345 and 119, respectively.