Child pornography ring busted

NCCIA arrests four on charges of blackmailing children, selling obscene videos

ISLAMABAD:

Four key members of a gang accused of blackmailing and sexually abusing innocent children, recording obscene videos of them and selling the material in Pakistan and internationally have been arrested.

Between 50 and 60 obscene videos of children were recovered from the suspects, while a Chinese national has been sentenced to five years in prison in a child pornography case.

Additional Director of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), Islamabad, Muhammad Shoaib Khan, told a press conference on Friday that the agency had exposed an international gang through a nationwide crackdown against elements involved in child pornography, online financial fraud and cyber harassment.

He said the suspects sold videos of children internationally. Shoaib Khan added that an investigation into nearly 60 videos recovered from a child's mobile phone led to the arrest of four suspects belonging to a child pornography gang.

The suspects allegedly befriended children aged between six and 14 through Instagram and other social media platforms, lured them with promises of money and made them record obscene videos. They then sold the videos through WhatsApp groups and to buyers internationally. He said two Chinese nationals had previously also been convicted in connection with this crime.

The additional director further said that raids had been conducted at call centres across the country, leading to the arrest of 473 foreign nationals allegedly involved in fraud while posing as bank representatives in Malaysia, China and India.

During the past week, 22 suspects accused of cyber harassment had also been taken into custody. All inquiries and investigations into these cases have been assigned exclusively to female officers.