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7 charged in Pakistan child abuse case

“I’m in pain, sleepless and lost”, said Dad, whose sons were drugged before the gang filmed them being sexually abused. “They used these videos to make sure no one could blackmail each other”. He said that the affected families will be provided justice at all costs.

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“The police are protecting the criminals, they are supporting them and have provided them an opportunity to escape”, Latif Ahmed Sara, a lawyer working with the victims, told the AFP. But a land once known for compassion and love, has suddenly become a symbol of perversion, owing to a child abuse scandal.

The police requested extension in their remand to recover cell phones, pornographic movies, memory cards, CDs and ammunition from their possession.

The gang ultimately released the video and his mother saw it. It caused her to finally confide a secret to her son she’d never told anyone: The same gang had raped her years earlier.

The prime minister said that no concession will be given with the accused involved in the incident.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan issued a statement saying “all attempts made to suppress or twist the information, and there have been many, should be strongly condemned and must also be probed”.

Police insist they took the case seriously from the start, appealing through local mosques for people with information to come forward.

Kasur incident is the worst example of poor law and order situation in the province, the opposition leader said.

“UNICEF is ready to expand its work with local and national authorities to increase such efforts, so that no child has to suffer these awful horrors”, the statement added.

Activist Mobeen Ghaznavi said he had 130 video clips containing abuse.

“They took my children’s life away”, Dad said.

The police have arrested a 13-year-old boy for having sex with another child. My world collapsed. Moreover, initial investigation by police department states that these can be downloaded videos as well from the internet. “Kids as young as five years old were made to perform oral sex”. In a clip viewed by a Reuters reporter, “a boy cowers and cries before putting his hands over the camera lens”.

One abuse survivor has told the BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil what happened to him at the age of 14. Referring to the government’s lack of awareness of the abuse that had been taking place for several years, he said this raises serious question about its capability and competence and that of its agencies. Two said they was threatened with weapons that included knife, an ax and a gun.

“The parents decided to approach police last month because that’s when one of the children finally opened up to his parents”, he said.

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One boy told BBC Urdu the abuse began when he was 11. “How can a child be safe if he knows that his parents, the culture and societal norms expect him to remain silent to uphold the family’s “honor”?”

7 charged in Pakistan child abuse case