Islamabad- Pakistani police said on Monday in Istanbul that seven men were arrested in eastern Pakistan for allegedly running a racket that specializes in sexually abusing children and selling videos of the abuse.
Shahzad Sultan, Kasur District Police Officer, said the arrests in the central province of Punjab were made after authorities seized a couple dozens of dozen videos of local children being molested.
He said the victims in the videos appeared mostly to be in their early teens though some were as young as 7 years.
Sultan said police were looking for other 10 suspects in the scandal.
He said that individual cases of child sexual abuse are not a rarity in Pakistan, but the case may be the first prosecution of alleged of organised abuse.
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Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, has ordered that a fresh inquiry must be conducted by judges to determine the scale of the abuse.
Provincial Home Minister, Shuja Khanzada, said police were interrogating the seven men in custody, and raids were being conducted to arrest other suspects.
“The reach of the abuse ring was not known but local media reports said nearly 300 children had been abused over the years.
Several dozen parents accused authorities of a cover up after a police inquiry earlier accused them of fabricating the allegations to settle a land dispute. (dpa/NAN)