[At least 280 children under the
age of 14 from three villages in eastern Punjab Province
a
HUSSAIN KHAN WALA, Pakistan
The accusations have rocked the country, drawing the attention
and condemnation of human rights activists and politicians in a case that
involved subjects long considered taboo here.
At least 280 children under the age of 14 from three villages in
eastern Punjab Province
The accusations of abuse
started trickling out last month as victims began to report it to the police,
and last Tuesday, hundreds of residents staged a protest, accusing the police
and local politicians of protecting the gang members and ignoring the
accusations. Some of the protesters clashed with the police, and dozens of
people were injured, including several police officers.
On Saturday, details of the abuse were carried by The Nation, a
Lahore-based English-language newspaper, which reported that the gang members
had drugged and intoxicated their victims, some as young as 6, and had recorded
hundreds of videos. Some of the children stole jewelry and money from their
parents to pay the men to stop them from making the videos public, according to
the reports. The newspaper said many of the videos were sold to buyers and
pornographic websites overseas.
The coverage prompted an outpouring of outrage on social media,
especially on Twitter.
Pedophilia remains a taboo subject in Pakistani society. Human
rights activists say that child abuse is rampant in the country and that
homeless children, as many as 1.5 million according to some estimates, are particularly vulnerable.
However, provincial officials in Punjab played down the scale of the
abuse and said that only seven cases had been registered by the police so far
and that they were in possession of only 30 videos.
Most of the victims and gang members are from Hussain Khan Wala,
a dusty farming village in the Kasur District of Punjab Province, near the
border with India Lahore
“This group was active since 2007 when they were school
students,” Shahzad Sultan, a senior police official said in an interview on
Sunday, referring to the suspects. He said most of the videos involved
consensual sex between teenagers.
Local police officials say the
allegations became public only after a land dispute arose between two rival
groups in the village. Mr. Sultan said that the videos of consensual sex were
being used now as part of an effort by one party in the dispute to discredit or
intimidate members of the other group with accusations of child abuse. “The
videos are old,” he said.
The man identified as the main suspect, Haseem Amir, said in an
interview that his uncle had bought the land under dispute now and that members
of another family who opposed the sale were now accusing him and his friends of
child abuse.
The seven suspects who were arrested are ages 16 to 25. Mr.
Amir, 25, denied that he was involved in blackmail and extortion. “We made some
mistakes while we were teenagers in school,” he said, alluding to the sex
videos. “We used to record videos and share with one another just for fun.”
But Muhammad Ashraf, the father
of one of the accusers, who filed a complaint to the police on Sunday, said his
son, 20, was abused as a student five years ago, but did not tell the family at
the time.
After video clips surfaced about two months ago, “we came to
know about it,” Mr. Ashraf said.
“My son was disturbed and sad,” Mr. Ashraf said. “He asked us to
lodge the case. He used to steal money and some valuables, and says he used to
give it to the blackmailers.”
In one video, a boy is seen crying after he is sexually abused,
and tries to cover his face with a hand to hide from the camera. In another
video, a man orders a boy to smile as he films him while the boy is abused.
A senior police official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity for fear of offending local sensibilities, said the case involved a
“mixture of social deviants” and behaviors that reflected changes in Pakistani
society. “Such acts of teenage homosexuality are becoming common practice,” the
officer said.
Opposition politicians said
over the weekend that they planned to take up the issue of child abuse in
Parliament on Monday.
Waqar
Gillani reported from Hussain Khan Wala, and Salman Masood from Islamabad , Pakistan
