Agri Dept staffer held for ‘raping children’

The accused blackmailed his victims using video footage of the abuse

CHICHAWATNI:

A case was registered by Kassowal police against a 50-year-old Agriculture Department staffer, who allegedly sexually assaulted and blackmailed young children by making videos in Iqbal Nagar. He was formally charged with blackmail and sexually abusing minors by the Tehsil Magistrate on Friday.

The accused, a resident of Ada Iqbal Nagar, is a father of four. He has also reportedly operated a painting studio at Ada 90 Morr near Chichawatni for the past year. He used to work in his agriculture department by day and at night, on the pretext of teaching painting to children, he allegedly used to lure and sexually abuse children, filming the acts.

The father of one of the victims said that his son attended Khalid’s painting lessons with several other children. He alleged that his son was frequently abused by Khalid, who also constantly used videos of the assaults as blackmailing to repeatedly sexually abuse him. The accused reportedly blackmailed three other children.

Read Anti-rape cell to open its doors

At the request of another victim’s father, Kassowal police registered a case against the accused and started searching for him. DPO Sahiwal Faisal Shahzad Dhedi took strict notice of the incident and on the orders of ASP Chichawatni Tariq Mehmood Sheikh, SHO Kasowal police station Mudassar Ghaffar and his team conducted a raid and arrested Khalid alias Naqash Koba.

The accused was brought before the Tehsil Magistrate by police station Kassowal. He was charged with sexually abusing underage children and blackmailing them by using videos of the abuse in Iqbal Nagar, a neighbourhood of Chichawatni. Police obtained a physical remand of the offender for four days and all of the accused's data was retrieved from his mobile phone. Further investigation is underway.

In a similar incident last month, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cybercrime cell claimed to have arrested two men accused of harassing, blackmailing and threatening a girl in Multan.

Also read Minor strangled after failed rape attempt

According to official sources, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cybercrime team arrested two accused named Muhammad Jamshaid and Muhammad Khalid over harassing, blackmailing and threatening a girl with explicit media of her.

The complainant, Mushtaq Ahmad, filed an application contending that the accused were harassing his daughter, upon which FIR No 143/23 was registered.

Meanwhile in March, a Faisalabad court sentenced a man involved in sharing child pornography to two years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs50,000, reported Express News.

According to a spokesperson, the accused, Asif Mehmood Raza, had shared illicit material in various WhatsApp groups in the year 2021. The Faisalabad FIA Cyber Crime Circle took action and registered a case against the man under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2023.