Pakistan witnessed a rise in crimes against children including child sexual abuse, abduction and child marriages, and eight children were abused every day in the country in one form or another in 2020, according to a report.

The report 'Cruel numbers 2020' is a compilation of statistics on crimes against children. The report was compiled by Sahil, an organisation focused on child protection, is based on cases reported in 84 national and regional newspapers in 2020, Dawn reported. The report was launched at a virtual event on Thursday.

Children most vulnerable to abuse belonged to the age group of 6-15 years. Moreover, children as young as 0-5 years were also sexually abused.

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.

As many as eight children were abused every day in Pakistan in one form or the other. The data showed that more than 80 per cent of the abusers were known to the children. In most of the cases, the abusers were either acquaintances (1,780) or service providers (109) such as teachers, shopkeepers and drivers. In a total of 91 cases, family members and relatives and in 92 cases neighbours were involved. In only 468 cases, strangers abused the children.

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