Police on Friday recovered another child who was being used for prostitution. This brings the total number of such children recovered in recent days to four.
Police suspect that there may be more children who are being exploited and are still missing. To address the issue, police say they have enhanced their human intelligence system along with utilising technical assistance, and intensified efforts to apprehend absconders involved in child prostitution.
“The child we recovered today [Friday] was found in Landhi. Yesterday [Thursday], we recovered two children, and before that, we had recovered one child. This brings the total number of recovered children to four,” Orangi Town SP Saad Bin Ubaid told The News.
Explaining the matter, the officer said that the first child who was recovered went missing on May 11, which prompted police to initiate investigations. During the investigations, they initially traced a suspect based on CDR and human intelligence. Later, they arrested two more suspects.
The SP said the police were able to bust a gang involved in child prostitution and recover the children who were being sexually exploited. “According to our knowledge, this gang has been operating for around two-and-a-half years,” the officer said, adding that so far, police had arrested six members of the gang. “There are three absconders who remain at large, but we are trying to apprehend them using technical and further intelligence methods. We expect to arrest them within a week.”
The Orangi Town SP also stressed the need for spreading awareness in society regarding child prostitution. Everyone must come together to stop this menace, he said. He added that usually, children who are entangled in this menace belonged to underprivileged classes, and their parents were often busy with work. In such situations, children fall into wrong hands and are often brainwashed by criminal elements, he said. “When they see incentives, they easily get involved in these activities,” the officer explained.
He added that it was worth noting that the amount of money those children got was insignificant as it was usually around Rs250. The SP said the age of such children ranged from 10 to 14 years. He added that the suspects told police during interrogation that children were being used for prostitution in various areas such as Macchar Colony, Mobina Town, Banaras, Sohrab Goth and Shershah.
The officer said the crime was being run in an organised manner, and children were often lured from gaming cafes and snooker clubs where criminals got themselves acquainted with them by paying for their coins or giving them money. He said the suspects who transported the kids from one point to another for the purpose of prostitution used online bike rider apps and wore helmets to avoid police.