Over 400 videos with 280 children being sexually abused have been seized by Punjab's Child Protection Bureau, leading them to Pakistan's biggest child pornography ring. Most of the victims were 14 years old and younger. There was a six-year-old boy being exploited, and a 10-year-old girl filmed while being molested by a 14-year-old boy, the Daily Pakistan reported.
The copies of the videos were sold in Hussain Khanwala, a village in Kasur district, for .50 Indian rupees (US$0.80). Gang members earn more by selling these videos through the Internet to pedophiles located mostly in Western countries. These gang members would even blackmail the families of these children, extorting them with millions of rupees.
"I was just nine years old when I was abducted and taken to a deserted house. I was brutally tortured when I offered resistance. Then they administered a spinal injection," said a boy who was raped by the gang in 2006. "I was raped multiple times by several men at gunpoint. I decided not to tell anybody. Six months later, the accused showed me the video clips when I refused to perform sexual acts on camera again. It was horrible."
Kasur's Sheikhupura Regional Police identified the pedophile group as the Ganda Singh Wala. They said that those who were videotaped were mostly teenagers and not children. This gang was led by two older men in their 40s and with members of 25 young men and teenagers. Eight cases have so far only been filed against 15 men, according to The Express Tribune.
Sheikhupura Regional Police Officer Shehzad Sultan said that they have announced to mosques in the village that people must come forward if there are any complaints against the gang. Only eight complainants have come forward.
There were clashes between the people of Kasur and its policemen, which injured members of both parties. Protesters claim that the policemen accepted bribes from members of the gang that causes their delayed arrest. One of the suspects behind bars was arrested, which triggered the protest.
Rana Asif Habib, a child rights lawyer and activist in Pakistan, said that what is unfolding is just the "tip of the iceberg," Deutsche Welle reported.
"Pakistan is not a signatory to the UN Child Rights Convention," Habib said, which makes these abused children unable to complain to authorities. He fears that investigation will only go on as long as the case is in the spotlight.
"After that there is usually no follow-up and then it is brushed under the carpet," Habib said.
