Daily Times

LAHORE: A court on Monday sentenced two men to life imprisonment for their role in a pedophile ring accused of abusing dozens of children over many years in Punjab, their defence lawyer said. Last year, the discovery of the pedophile ring shocked Pakistan and led to a rare authorization of police officers for negligence after dozens of families came forward to say their children had been abused and then blackmailed by members of a wealthy family. Residents at that time alleged a prominent family in the village of Husain Khan Wala with used guns, knives and axes to force children, some as young as five to perform sex acts on video, which they sold and used to extort money from victims’ families. Lawyer Adnan Liaqat said that 17 people including 14 members of the same family had been charged with sodomy, extortion and blackmail in relation to the abuse of children. Liaqat said, “In one of those cases, two accused Haseem Amir and Faizan Majeed have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Monday”. The officials occasionally use anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) to prosecute important cases, as regular courts are perceived to be weak and wealthy suspects can bribe their way out of trouble. Liaqat said that Amir and Majeed were also fined Rs 0.3 million for their role in the abuse, becoming the first people to be convicted in relation to the scandal. Amir is a member of the prominent family while Majeed is his friend. The families of abused children have accused the police of negligence saying that they had raised alarm bells about the abuse but were ignored. At least three police officers were removed from their posts over the scandal, a rare event in a nation where police officials are hardly sacked.