NCCIA arrests 4 suspects over child sexual abuse material trafficking in Islamabad

NCCIA says suspects lured children aged 6-14 through social media

ISLAMABAD:

The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Friday arrested four alleged members of an international gang involved in child sexual abuse and the production and sale of sexually explicit videos of minors.

Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, NCCIA Additional Director Muhammad Shoaib Khan said investigators had recovered around 50 to 60 objectionable videos involving children from a mobile phone belonging to a child.

“The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of the four suspects,” he added.

نیشنل سائبر کرائم انویسٹی گیشن ایجنسی (NCCIA) کے سائبر کرائم رپورٹنگ سینٹر اسلام آباد نے بچوں کے استحصال اور آن لائن گرومنگ کے مقدمے میں کارروائی کرتے ہوئے 4 رکنی گینگ کو گرفتار کر لیا۔

درج مقدمے کی تحقیقات کے دوران ملزمان کے قبضے سے مقامی کم عمر بچوں سے متعلق بچوں کے جنسی… pic.twitter.com/FHnTlAIicm

— NCCIA (@NCCIAOFFICIAL) October 23, 2026

According to Khan, the suspects allegedly befriended children aged between six and 14 through Instagram and other social media platforms, luring them with promises of money before coercing them into recording explicit videos.

Read: Naqvi vows to strengthen NCCIA as cybercrime cases mount in Punjab

The videos were allegedly circulated through WhatsApp groups and sold to buyers internationally, the director said.

Khan also said the agency had previously secured convictions against two Chinese nationals in child sexual abuse material cases.

The arrests come amid an intensified nationwide crackdown by the NCCIA on online child exploitation, blackmail and digital fraud.

On October 10, the NCCIA signed agreements with international artificial intelligence (AI) organisations to strengthen its ability to detect and investigate online offences against children. NCCIA Lahore Additional Director Atif Ameer revealed that AI-assisted analysis had helped identify a suspect in Gujranwala, leading to his arrest.

In a separate operation in Lahore on October 7, the NCCIA arrested 39 people, including a woman, over allegations that an illegal call centre used AI-generated explicit images to blackmail borrowers who had taken digital loans. Investigators alleged that the operation exploited access to borrowers’ mobile phone galleries and contact lists. Forty laptops and 41 mobile phones were seized for forensic examination.

Other operations

In a separate development, the NCCIA arrested 473 foreign nationals during raids on call centres across the country for their alleged involvement in financial fraud, the NCCIA official said.

Khan stated that the suspects posed as bank representatives in Malaysia, China and India to defraud victims.

The agency also detained 22 suspects in cyber harassment cases over the past week, he said, adding that female officers of the NCCIA had been tasked with the investigation in these cases.

Separately, a Karachi East judicial magistrate remanded a man, Shoaib Nawaz Afridi, to the custody of the NCCIA for three days in a case involving the alleged blackmail of a woman.

Read more: NCCIA arrests Khanewal man indicted in $126m US postal fraud case