Police have launched an investigation into the rape of a minor in a private school in Lahore’s Shahdara area, according to media reports.

Local newspapers on Thursday reported that a 10-year-old girl was hospitalised after she was sexually assaulted. The girl, who is a class-III student, was found in a critical condition in the school's washroom after classes had been dismissed for the day. The survivor was shifted to a hospital where doctors confirmed the sexual assault.

Police have lodged a case against the unidentified suspect and the medical examination of the survivor has been conducted. Moreover, the cops were also in a bid to get help from CCTV cameras on campus.

A police official told Dawn that the “survivor was found in a semi-conscious condition and the crime scene indicates she had resisted the assault while it was happening.”

As per the initial inquiry, the survivor went to the toilet after school was over, and the suspect locked the bathroom from the inside. The police has not overlooked the possibility of the rapist being a student of the school.

“The survivor cried for help while she was being sexually assaulted,” the police official said based on what some of her class fellows had told the police. The children had also approached the school administration about the crying but they ignored it, because "children usually make noise".

According to The News, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has sought an incident report from the Lahore police and directed them to take strict action against the culprit.

It also reported that the survivor’s father named Ali Hassan alleged that the school’s principal “did not pay any heed” upon his complaint about the incident.