LAHORE - Videos showing victims of the Kasur child sexual abuse scandal being raped are on sale in Lahore’s Hall Road market, a leading lawyer said yesterday.
More than 280 children were found sexually abused in two villages of Kasur district during the last five years, The Nation revealed earlier this month.
But despite the national outcry over the scale of abuse and the failure of police to act, copies of the videos are still widely available.
Lawyer Azhar Siddique yesterday said shopkeepers in the Hall Road market were openly offering the clips and promoting them as ‘Kasur-special stock’. One of his researchers was offered a ‘Kasur video’ for Rs20.
He took one of the videos and compared the victims it featured with those who had appeared on television reports on the Kasur scandal and found several matches.
“I was shocked to know the same videos are openly being sold in Lahore,” said Siddique.
He filed a petition in the Lahore High Court yesterday to stop their sale. Later he said the fact that the videos were being openly sold at Pakistan’s largest electronics market highlighted the failure of the city’s main investigation agencies.
“This clearly shows the failure of the Federal Investigation Agency, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the police in stopping the production and sale of porn videos,” he said.
Their sale is in violation of Articles 9, 17 and 34 of the Constitution and against the teachings of Islam, he added.
The court accepted his plea and ordered the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to ensure the ban on sale of child porn videos in the market.
The next hearing is due today (Friday).
In a separate petition, LHC Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik ordered the police to guarantee the protection of the Kasur scandal accused. Their counsel had claimed the police wanted to kill them in fake encounters.
The counsel also complained of the slow speed of investigation which could cause loss of evidence. The court adjourned further hearing until Sept 18.