Pakistan launches judicial investigation into largest child abuse scandal
Officials in Pakistan’s Punjab state have announced initiation of a judicial inquiry into a massive child abuse and extortion scandal allegedly involving hundreds of victims.
"Those involved in the case will be severely punished. They will not be able to escape their fate,” said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday.
The investigation was launched following mounting calls for action against the gang allegedly responsible for some 400 video recordings, which show some 280 children, mostly under 14-years-old, being sexually abused in Hussain Khanwala village in the Kasur district.
According to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, in some cases the videos were used to blackmail the victim’s parents.
Saba Sadiq, chief of the province's Child Protection Bureau, referred to the case as "the largest child abuse scandal in Pakistan's history."
The scandal gained national attention last week after clashes broke out in the village between parents protesting against the police's failure to arrest those responsible.
Last week, the provincial government ordered an initial report to be prepared by local police, which labeled the allegations as “baseless” after investigations.
However, Kasur police chief Rai Babar Saeed told Dunya News on Sunday that only seven children were involved in the production of the videos. He claims both Pakistani and international media highly exaggerated the numbers.
And according to a Dunya News reporter, Aslam Khan, who stayed in that village for two days to investigate the incident, only seven children were involved, and videos were produced from 2009 to 2013.
So far, seven men have been arrested in relation to the case.
The scandal is just the “tip of the iceberg" and the actual number of the victims is most definitely much higher, Rana Asif Habib, a prominent child rights activist, was quoted by Deutsche Welle as saying.
As "Pakistan is not a signatory to the UN Child Rights Convention," children cannot complain to any authority in the event that they are sexually exploited, Habib added .
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