Story Highlights
Child Abuse scandal
Earlier this week nation was shocked over, what is being termed as, the largest child abuse scandal in Pakistan’s history. The scandal surfaced when Punjab’s Child Protection Bureau disclosed a child pornography ring in Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur district of Lahore. As the report surfaced, police raided the area and confiscated over 400 videos featuring more than 280 children being sexually abused. Most of the victims were under 14 years of age. A gang of 25 criminals is said to be involved in sexual abuse of children and making their videos to blackmail parents. The criminals’ gang has been active in the area for the past 10 years.
According to media reports thousands of copies of the videos are believed to have been sold for Rs. 50 each. Meanwhile, according to the parents of the children the gang members would sell the videos to pedophiles in western countries for large amounts of money. Around a dozen FIRs have been registered in the case by victims’ families while eight of the 25 suspects are currently in police custody. Meanwhile a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has been constituted to inquire into the scandal on the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Families of the victims also accuse local police officials and politicians for protecting the accused. Senate has passed a unanimous resolution condemning the abuse and demanding punishment for the culprits.
Meanwhile, residents of Husain Khanwala and other villages held a protest against the police for their failure to arrest the gang involved in raping children and extorting money from their parents by blackmailing them.
MQM Resigns
Muttahida Quami Movement has been voicing its concerns regarding Rangers operation in Karachi, which it claimed targeting MQM only. This week, MQM lawmakers, in a protest against Karachi operation, simultaneously submitted their resignations in the National Assembly, Senate and the Sindh Assembly. Earlier, the MQM had announced that the party parliamentarians would tender their resignations from assemblies and Senate if the government does not answer their grievances. MQM was the fourth largest in the National Assembly, third largest in Senate and second largest in Sindh Assembly. MQM lawmaker Farooq Sattar while addressing the Lower House said that his party was a victim of “political revenge”. He said the members of MQM were being arrested, whether guilty or innocent and were subjected to brutal torture. Mr Sattar also complained that despite repeated attempts, the prime minister and the chief of army staff had not responded to the request for a formal meeting.
Earlier, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar told the National Assembly that all political parties were united over the Rangers operation against terrorists and clarified that the Karachi operation was not MQM-centric.
Meanwhile resignation of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) lawmakers from parliament and the Sindh Assembly drew mixed reaction from political parties, with some terming it “unnecessary” and trying to bring the disgruntled legislators back to the Houses, while others calling the move “politics of blackmailing”.
War Against Terror
Although the number of terrorism related incidents have been significantly reduced after the military operation in North Waziristan, yet the terrorists manage to carry out attacks on security officials. Two such incidents took place this week in Khyber agency and Karachi. In Khyber agency at least three security personnel were killed when an improvised explosive device went off on in Tirah Valley when security personnel were on a routine patrol of the area.
Meanwhile four policemen were killed by gunmen in Kornagi area of Karachi. The gunmen, who were on a motorcycle, fired at a police patrol vehicle and injured four policemen, who died later in the hospital.
Meanwhile Afghanistan once again pointed fingers at Pakistan as Afghan intelligence agency has claimed that Pakistan was involved in last week’s attacks in Kabul that killed more than 50 people and wounded hundreds. Hassib Sediqi, the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, said that special circles of the Pakistani military were behind the attacks.
Meanwhile Pakistan has outrightly denied the allegations as Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz said that there are all kinds of (militant) factions that are operating in Afghanistan which make it difficult to ascertain who is behind the attacks.
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