A sessions court in Quetta on Wednesday sentenced a police constable to death on charges of sexual abuse of children.

The convict, Tayyab Raza Kazmi, was arrested by police for sexually abusing three children in Police Lines area of Quetta. Cases were registered against him in 2015, police said.

According to the judgement announced by Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Ali Mubeen, Kazmi has been handed death sentence on two counts.

The convict, who is a police constable, was taken into custody on complaints of the victims' parents.

The trial had lasted for almost three years. The suspect was convicted by the court after evidence proved his abuse of children.

Following the verdict, police shifted the convict to District Jail Quetta.

Rise in child abuse cases

A report released by the NGO Sahil had revealed in August that cases of child abuse increased by 32 per cent in the first six months of 2018 compared to the first half of 2017.

Read: More than 12 children abused every day in first half of 2018: report

The report found that a total of 2,322 child abuse cases were reported by newspapers in all four provinces, as well as Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. In comparison, 1,764 such incidents were reported from January to June 2017.

More than 12 children were abused every day during the January to June period of this year, the data shows.

One of the authors of the report, Mamtaz Gohar had told Dawn that although child abuse cases were expected to fall in the wake of the Zainab rape and murder case, they had unfortunately increased.

“However, another view is that the Zainab murder case gave victims’ families courage to speak out rather than hide incidents of sexual abuse. The good thing is that, soon after that case, a drastic change has been noticed in the attitude and behaviour of families towards such cases,” he said.

Imran Ali, who was convicted for the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab in Kasur earlier this year, was executed earlier this month.