Four police officials suspended over child porn scandal

ATC remands five accused; LHC summons police chief

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif Tuesday suspended four senior police officials over negligence in the Kasur child pornography scandal.

Special Branch AIG Dr Haram Mushtaq, DPO Rai Babar and a DSP of the police wing were among those officially removed and designated ‘on special duty’ because they had failed to take appropriate actions against the perpetrators of the sickening crime.

A gang of 20 to 25 men had ostensibly filmed as many as 400 videos of sexual abuse involving at least 280 children from the Hussain Khan Wala village in Kasur.

In a post on Shahbaz’s official Facebook page, the chief minister said he was personally monitoring the investigation. A joint investigation team would probe the case on the site so that “everyone has access to it at [their] doorstep”.

He also said that the provincial police chief, IGP Mushtaq Sukhera, had been sent to the village to ensure that the investigation is carried out without discrimination and pressure.

During Sukhera’s visit to the village, however, his car was intercepted by enraged villagers. Angry relatives of the victims also shouted slogans against the police.

When he finally made it to a state-run school where he was scheduled to address the villagers, the IGP said the police were investigating the case and would bring the culprits to book before long. “A transparent inquiry is being conducted, and those found responsible will be shown no leniency.”

He said SHO Mehr Akmal had been removed after being charged with aiding the accused by sharing with them the complaints brought against them. “If the SHO fails to prove his innocence, he will be taken to task.”

Later, as the police chief was leaving the school building, a protester threw a shoe at him, but it missed the target and hit another policeman instead.

Five accused remanded

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) has remanded five men to the police for 28 days over their alleged involvement in the Kasur scandal.

Police brought before the court the accused – Ubaidur Rehman, Atiqur Rehman, Tanzeelur Rehman, Waseem and Yahya – seeking remand for further investigation.

Advocate Latif Sara, the counsel for the complainants, said the accused used to kidnap children, intoxicate them and then film them being sexually abused. “The accused blackmailed the children’s parents into paying them more than Rs350 million.”

The counsel for the accused, however, claimed that his clients had been implicated in a fabricated case. Later, Advocate Sara told the media that hundreds of video clips had been sold to customers in foreign countries.

Meanwhile, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmed has summoned the Punjab advocate general, prosecutor general, home secretary, inspector general of police and others on a petition seeking trial of the Kasur scandal by an ATC. Advocate Aftab Bajwa told the court that there had been a grave sense of fear among the locals since the case was unearthed.

He also asked the court to direct the government to insert Section 7 of the ATA and shift the trial to a special court.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2015.