Cases of sexual assault on underage girls had been on the rise in the Kurunegala and Puttalam districts during the past seven months. Most of the assaults had been carried out at rest houses.
Four hundred undercover police officers had been deployed near rest houses, in order to prevent such incidents.
DIG Kithsiri Jayalath urged the public to alert the police of such cases by calling 071-3303784.
Four hundred and sixty-eight cases of sexual assault on schoolgirls had been reported so far this year from the North Western Province (NWP), a senior Kurunegala police chief told the Daily News last Sunday.