Pakistani Police Arrests 7 Men Over Child Abuse Syndicate

Meanwhile, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmed has summoned the Punjab advocate general, prosecutor general, home secretary, inspector general of police and others on a petition seeking trial of the Kasur scandal by an ATC.

“There could be a dispute over the numbers of incidents but it is true that this has been happening for the last few years”, Riaz said. The gang arranges the abuse and uses the videotapes to extort money from the children and their families. The videos were then used to blackmail their families as well as being sold to websites that host child abuse images. “One fails to understand how this was able to go on for years with police failing to act”, he said, calling for an impartial and thorough investigation.

Pakistan on Sunday ordered the setting up of a judicial commission to investigate the alleged sex abuse of 280 children in a village bordering India.

Villagers have accused the police of ignoring the issue after, they claimed, they repeatedly brought it up with the authorities over the past six years.

At least seven more men were arrested on Monday for allegedly running a racket that abused almost 300 children and blackmailed their families for money, police official Baber Saeed said.

Her 15-year-old son is still in jail, she said.

A 10-year-old said he was taken to a haveli (mansion) by the gang at gunpoint. “I assure you that we are taking this very seriously and there will be a fair and very transparent investigation”, he said.

A 13 year-old boy was arrested for having intercourse with another small boy, however, her mother claimed his innocence. 40 each if they did not pay up. Initial investigation, however, revealed some of the suspects had sexually abused teenage girls and boys, he said.

“Everyone in this village is a victim”.

Another boy said he was molested by the same gang in 2006. I was brutally tortured when I offered resistance.

A 15-year-old boy filmed in one of the videos told CNN he was first raped at the age of nine, after he was approached by a man with a gun while collecting water for his grandfather. While the Pakistani and Indian governments were pointing fingers at each other, something more terrifying had just been uncovered in Pakistan’s Punjab. I decided not to tell anybody. I have seen the videos. “It was frightful”, he said.

On Saturday, details of the abuse were carried by The Nation, a Lahore-based English-language newspaper, which reported that the gang members had drugged and intoxicated their victims, some as young as 6, and had recorded hundreds of videos.

“It is important to break the silence and challenge the taboo around it”, human rights activist Samar Minallah told the Agence France-Presse.