QUETTA: Underage prisoners are routinely sexually abused by older prisoners in jails in Balochistan, said Jamiat- Ulema Islam MPA Sardar Abdur Rehman during an assembly session.

The lawmaker said that older prisoners who have been in the jails for a considerable period of time and enjoy influence subject young and vulnerable prisoners to sexual abuse.

The children are in not a position to resist the abuse and a number of them often come out of jails as victims of abuse and drug addicts, Rehman said.

The speaker of the Balochistan Assembly has directed the home ministry to present a report on the matter in the next session.

Despite a law criminalising child sexual abuse, various reports keep surfacing about young children and teenagers being subjected to *** crimes. The country was hit by a major child abuse scandal in 2015 when a massive child abuse and extortion scandal in Hussain Khanwala village of Kasur district came to light.

Initial investigation into the scandal, termed the biggest in the country's history, revealed that around 400 videos were made of 280 victims over the last 10 years by an organised gang of over 25 criminals in Hussain Khanwala village.