A 12-year-old boy was reportedly gang-raped by five young men in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Shangla district, police said on Monday.

According to police officials, the minor boy approached Alpuri police station with the complaint that he was subjected to gang rape by five boys, who are in their late teens, near his residence in Barari Khwar area on Sunday. A medical examination of the victim confirmed that he had been subjected to sexual assault.

Police have registered a first information report (FIR) of the incident and arrested all five suspects nominated by the victim in his complaint.

The accused were subsequently presented before a local court, which handed over the men to police on a three-day physical remand. Police have taken DNA samples of the suspects and sent them to Peshawar for forensic examination.

District Police Officer Rahatullah Khan told Dawn.com that police acted swiftly and was able to apprehend the accused men soon after the complaint was filed.

Cases of sexual assault against minors have come under greater scrutiny in the country following the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Amin in Kasur, whose body was recovered from a trash heap in the city on January 9.

The news shocked the entire country with #JusticeforZainab becoming a rallying cry for catching and punishing perpetrators of such heinous crimes.

Statistics released by KP Child Protection and Welfare Commission last month showed that at least 222 cases of sexual abuse against children were reported in KP between May 2011 and December 2017.