The Roshni Helpline’s annual report 2025 says 89% of missing children, 3400 out of 3808 reportedly missing, were recovered from across Pakistan and they were reunited with their families. The cases were referred to the Roshni team either by the police or were reported on Roshni Helpline 1138 directly, and through the organization’s volunteers and media including social media.
“Protection of children should be our top priority under all circumstances. In this regard, every individual in society must play his/her role” said the Executive Director of Roshni Helpline 1138, Muhammad Ali.
The Roshni Helpline 1138 is a dedicated child protection organization that tracks and recovers missing children and provide training to police and other institutions and creates awareness about child protection. It compiles data about the missing/found children and at the yearend releases a report showing trends to alarm the parents and authorities to ensure children’s protection and well-being.
According to the 2025 report, Roshni Helpline registered 3,808 missing children’s cases in their data portal from various sources nationwide. Out of these 3,808 reported cases, 3,400 children have been successfully traced and reunited with their parents, reflecting a success rate of 89%. At present, 408 children are still missing across Pakistan, and efforts to locate them are ongoing, said Ali.
Province wise data segregation says the reports of missing children from The Punjab stands at 1,378; Sindh 1,727; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 390, Federal Capital Islamabad 38, Balochistan 174, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 98 and Gilgit-Baltistan 3 cases.
An alarming trend shows that boys topped the tally of missing children with 2,858 boys followed by 950 girls. When analyzed by age group, 534 children were aged 0–5 years, 756 were aged 6–10 years, 598 were aged 16–18 years, while the highest number of cases involved children aged 11–15 years, totaling 1,920. These children had left their homes due to various reasons.
Ali said through extensive training sessions led by experts, Roshni Helpline 1138 builds professional capacity of police officers nationwide, particularly in relation to legislation
concerning missing children. In 2025, 350 police officers across Pakistan were trained on the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act 2020, along with guidance on handling missing children’s cases. Roshi had been instrumental in promulgation of the Act. Three ceremonies were conducted to give Best Performance Awards to 122 police officers in Sindh for outstanding performance in tracing missing children.
“It is matter of concern for us as a society that for the last three consecutive years, incidents of child sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence are rapidly increasing across the country. A trend has been witnessed that the missing boys were abused more than the girls. Painfully, 39 bodies of missing children were recovered from across Pakistan. Three of them were reported killed after being sexually assaulted,” said Muhammad Ali.
He said Roshni Helpline 1138 has always been exposing such incidents of violence and abuses, sexual abuse, pornography, cyber targeting the children for abuse before authorities for better child protection in Pakistan. Let’s us join hands to ensure that our children are protected against all kinds of discrimination, abuse, and crimes and they are given a safe and secure living environment.
Roshni Helpline 1138 urges all citizens to remain vigilant and immediately report missing children’s cases to the nearest police station and Roshni Helpline 1138. The organization also calls upon the people, philanthropists, and state functionaries to support its ongoing efforts to strengthen child protection mechanisms across Pakistan.
