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Does August 2015 Kasur child abuse case ring any bells for you? If not then here is a quick flashback. Before 2015, the beautiful district of Kasur was majorly famous for the shrine of Baba Bulleh Shah. But this year turned a lot of things upside down for this district when the Kasur child sexual abuse scandal was reported which sent shivers down the spine of millions.
This child abuse case included 280 to 300 children which were being sexually abused every day, and this nightmare continued for 8 years (2006-2014). Hundreds of video clips were discovered which were shown to the children while performing forced sex acts. Moreover, most of the victims were reported to be male and it was revealed later that this scandal involved an organized crime ring that used to sell child pornography to porn sites, and blackmailed and extorted relatives of the victims.
This scandal took a lot of twists and turns. Some said that the police of Punjab and Mr. Malik Ahmed Saeed who belongs to PML-N and is a member of the provincial assembly was involved in an attempted cover-up of the abuse. The Reuters mentioned that the villagers living in Husain Khan Wala have mentioned a prominent family which lives there and for years, have forced children to perform sex acts on video. Several parents accused the police of being involved because they tried to file a report numerous times but were always told to get lost or were thrown out.
At least 16 suspects along with the declared mastermind of the child pornography ring at the heart of the Kasur child abuse scandal, were put behind the bars. However, the statement of the officer responsible for the investigation into the scandal came as a total shock when he told the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights that the event should not be treated as “organized crime” for the sake of the youngsters who were in their mid-20s. The previous year, the court announced life imprisonment to two suspects named Faizan Majeed and Haseem Amir for another case in the scandal.
This Saturday the Anti-Terrorism Court acquitted 4 suspects in one of the 9 cases by giving them the benefit of doubt. While announcing the verdict Mr. Chaudhry Muhammad Ilyas who was the judge, exculpated Saleem Akhter Sherazi, Attiqur Rehman, Tanzeelur Rehman and Haseem Amir. Furthermore, some cases as well as some charges have been registered by the Ganda Singhwala police for the abducting and sexually assaulting of about 280 children of Kasur.
It’s sad that besides everything good that is happening, incidents like these take our nation to several years back. It is the time that we as a nation take a stand against all these criminal activities to eradicate them from our society and make Pakistan prosper again. Let us know in the comment section down below as to what is your take on this brutal scandal.
