Children whose families say have been abused, hide their faces while their mothers are interviewed by a Reuters correspondent in village Husain Khan Wala of Punjab on August 9, 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS
LHC Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik asked Punjab Advocate General Naveed Rasool Mirza, Punjab IG Police Mushtaq Sukhera, Punjab Home Secretary Azam Suleman, DPO Kasur, SP investigation, SHO and the investigation officers concerned to appear in person before the court on Wednesday to explain whether the case should be tried under the ATA.
Read: Kasur child abuse scandal: Families accuse police of turning blind eye
The CJ was hearing a petition filed by four female law students in the LHC on Tuesday. On behalf of the petitioners, Advocate Aftab Bajwa submitted that the police is dealing with it as a normal case and is going to submit a challan in the court of an additional district and sessions judge which is "illegal and unconstitutional."
“The case falls under ATA as it harassed the whole country and the case should be sent to the military court,” Bajwa requested. He also pleaded the court to direct the additional district and sessions judge to not take up the case.
At least 12 accused have been arrested after around 280 children in remote villages in Kasur district were targeted in a criminal operation that began in 2006.
According to details, a gang of 20 to 25 men had filmed as many as 400 videos of sexual abuse involving at least 280 children belonging to Hussain Khan Wala village.
Read: Kasur child porn scandal: LHC turns down govt request for judicial probe
On Monday, parents at the centre of a growing child abuse scandal in Kasur accused police of failing to do enough to break up a paedophile ring in Punjab. Villagers in Husain Khan Wala had told Reuters that a prominent family there has for years forced children to perform sex acts on video. The footage was sold or used to blackmail their impoverished families.
Five accused sent on 28-day physical remand
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore handed over five accused to police on a 28-day physical remand over their alleged involvement in Kasur child pornography case.
Police produced Ubaidur Rehman, Attiqur Rehman, Tanzeelur Rehman, Waseem and Yahya in the court, seeking their physical remand to investigate the allegations of abducting children and sexually abusing them for ransom and blackmailing their parents.
The police only presented five of total seven accused before the ATC after including section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the FIR as the other two had already been remanded by a Kasur court, sources told The Express Tribune.
Further, after listening to the arguments of the prosecution the special judge of the ATC allowed the physical remand of the accused so that further investigation could be carried out.
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