SAHIWAL: On the order of an additional sessions judge, a team of the district chapter of the Child Protection Bureau (CPB) raided an orphanage at Chichawatni on Tuesday, recovering 18 children, 17 of them from Balochistan, who were allegedly being torturedbytheirteachers and caretakers.

The incident came to light after a video went viral on social media, showing a teacher beating a minor boy with a stick, while two other children were holding his arms and legs.

The abuse allegedly occurred in Ahmed WelfareFoundation, an unregistered private orphanage.

Sahiwal District Police Officer (DPO) Rana Tahir took notice of the video and directed the Chichawatni city police to intervene.

A police team, led by Sub-Inspector Muhammad Jaffar, raided the facility and confirmed the torture.

They found that a teacher, Ahmed Bashir, had allegedly tortured a 10-year-old orphan boy, Shahzad.

The police arrested Bashir, who confessed to be a caretakeratthefoundation.

A First Information Report (FIR) was filed under section 323-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The police say that most of the children in the orphanage were being subjected to physical abuse on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, CPB District Officer Muhammad Adnan, who came to know about the issue through social media, directed the bureau`s Legal Officer Ali Akbar to approach the court for a search order.

Accordingly, Mr Akbar approached AdditionalSessions Judge Muhammad Farrukh Hameed, seeking a search order for the foundation.

After getting the search order from the court, a CPB team raided the foundation`s premises and rescued 18 children detained there, all under the age of 10.

CPB officials say that 17 of the recovered children are from different districts of Balochistan, and one from Chichawatni. The CPB investigations revealed that the foundation is not a registered body and its owners are from Islamabad.

Police say that the foundation owners, caretakers and management fled the premises before the raid.

DPO Tahir stated that police are investigating the matter.

Mr Adnan told Dawn that the recovered children have been lodged in the CPB`s district office, where they are being provided food and clothes, adding that all of them would be presented in the court on Wednesday (today).