Relatives of three suspects say they saw them in the clips. PHOTO: AFP
LAHORE: Ganda Singhwala police say they have registered 18 FIRs on child abuse complaints and are seeking more complaints by making announcements in the area. They say they have arrested 13 of the 17 suspects, aged between 17 and 50, nominated in the FIRs. They say the remaining four suspects have fled the area and hope that police teams will soon track them down.
The suspects have been accused of abusing children related to the complainants, extorting money from the complainants and threatening them with dire consequences if they report the matter to the police.
Speaking to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity, a senior policeman said that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had collected between 30 and 40 video clips of child pornography. He said the JIT had yet to uncover evidence of large-scale sale of clips to porn websites hosted in foreign countries.
About the 17 suspects mentioned in the FIRs, he said seven could be seen committing the crime in the clips.
Talking to The Tribune, villagers in Hussain Khanwala including relatives of some suspects said they had seen some of them in the clips.
Khadim Hussain and Abdul Majeed, a tenant of Zafar Iqbal, said they had seen a clip and could identify some men related to them in it. They said the children seen in the clips were not putting up any resistance. They said they believed their relatives were not forcing them to have sex. Initial reports in the media had stated that at least 280 children were abused in the village. In one of the FIRs, a complainant had claimed that the suspects had made at least 400 clips of child pornography. He had said that he was also abused and blackmailed that a video of the incident would be uploaded online if he reported the matter to the police. The complainant said later he was also asked by the suspects to help with recording of clips.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2015.
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