SAHIWAL: A team of the Farid Town police has arrested four members of a gang who have been raping minor children and making videos of the despicable act for the last three years.

The police team raided the hideout on the reports of the Special Branch and learnt that the gang had raped more than three dozen children and browbeat them into keeping mum over their misfortune. The law enforcers also recovered 46 videos saved in USB device and mobile phones of the suspects from a marriage centre at Al-Quresh Town, Noor Shah Road.

Police have obtained five-day physical remand of the suspects.

Inspector Chaudhry Ijaz of Special Branch told Dawn that the gangsters raped poor children between 12 and 14 years. Most children, he said, were into begging or selling trifling articles at the bus and wagon stands.

Police obtain remand of four suspects

Investigation Officer Umer Daraz said police were looking into the case from every possible angle. He said investigation was under way to find out whether the gang would sells the videos to any racket. He said police arrested Tariq Javed, Asif Ali, Riyasat Ali and Hafiz Ehtesham and registered a case against them under sections 377, 377B & C-292 of PPC.

Initial investigation by the Special Branch revealed that Riyasat worked as a hawker at the General Bus Stand and he would trap children -- some of who were students of classes 7 to 9 -- by offering money. He took the children to the marriage centre where the gangsters would sexually assault them and made their videos to blackmail them.

Local child rights activists have demanded that police trace the abused children and help their families go for individual FIRs against the perpetrators.

Umer Daraz said police would trace the children with the help of technology. Police had also sought the FIA help to dig deep into the issue, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2021