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Child pornography, all of a sudden, has become one of the most talked about things in the country. Ever since the rape and murder of 6-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur, the country has been buzzing with the possibilities of pornography involved.
It all started after Zainab’s rapist Imran Ali was arrested, after he confessed to raping and murdering the minor. News One anchor and prominent journalist Dr. Shahid Masood was the one who got the country to terms with child pornography.
Even though his allegation of Imran Ali being a part of an international ring, filming and live streaming violent child pornography was false, he did bring the country up to speed with the context of child pornography. Ever since those allegations, the Federal Investigation Agency has been extremely active.
Ever since, the FIA has located and arrested three men from Punjab involved in uploading and selling child pornography. “We have so far traced three cases of child pornography either on tip-offs from inside the country or outside of it. We do not have any other mechanism to track down the suspects involved in this heinous crime,” he said.
“That’s why we have proposed to the federal government that a ‘cyber patrol wing’, comprising a dedicated team of FIA personnel and equipped with the latest software, be set up.”
The three cases found by the FIA have been linked to Jhang, Fateh Jhang and Sargodha. Taimoor Maqsood of Jhang had been arrested exchanging child porn videos online, Sargodha’s Saadat Amin sold child porn videos online, while the third from Fateh Jhang, Nabil, allegedly made child porn videos and took their pictures as well.
These suspects were arrested with the help of Canadian and Norwegian authorities, who had tipped the FIA that people from their country were trying to provide sensitive pornographic content to people in their countries.
In Pakistan’s new cyber-crime law, Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, “a child pornographer shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of up to seven years or with a fine of up to Rs. 50 lakhs or with both”. This, indeed, is a not a small issue anymore, as the consequences of being a part of child porn have gone from tough to extreme.
The FIA is now proposing to set up a whole new cyber patrol wing, that would monitor other entities like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc for child porn as well, all in a bid to protect our children.
