KASUR (Staff Report) – Another suspected culprit involved in child sex abuse scandal has been arrested in Kasur, said police officials on Saturday.
After the arrest of Muhammad Ramzan alias Jhana the total number of under custody culprits has risen to 16.
According to police, seven out of these culprits have confessed to sex assault and pornography charges.
Meanwhile a five member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is also probing the scandal on directions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The team will submit its finding with Punjab government in ten days.
Earlier Punjab’s Child Protection Bureau disclosed country’s largest child pornography ring, in which 400 videos have been confiscated featuring more than 280 children being sexually exploited.
The Nation published the report of organised child sex exploitation, which has shocked the nation. According to the report, most of the victims were under 14 years of age. In one of the videos a six-year-old boy can be seen forced to perform sexual act, and a 10-year-old schoolgirl who was filmed being molested by a 14-year-old boy.
Thousands of copies of the sexual assault videos are believed to have been sold for Rs. 50 each in Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur district. According to the parents of the children, the gang members were in contact with pedophiles in western countries through Skype and would sell the videos overseas for large amounts of money.
According to our reporter, Shoaib Bhatti, the 3 villages namely Hussain Khanwala, Bagga, and Rohi Nala were under the control of a large child-porn gang that exported their content abroad. They barely sold their content in Pakistan. The whole scheme was being financed by two primary sources: extortion money from the victims and their families, and sales to foreigners over social media and Skype who would pay large amounts to sometimes watch these rapes live. Sales in local area was limited because it did not yield great profits. It is estimated that from extortion alone, they have earned Rupees 80 million.
Our reporter was also able procure a CD containing at least 280 clips of these barbaric acts from an ordinary villager.
Many on social media and TV channels have condemned the scandal and urged provincial government to try those behind this under terrorism law.
