LAHORE - A suspected paedophile was arrested yesterday for raping and filming the abuse of four children under 10 in Hafizabad district, Punjab.
Medical reports have confirmed that an eight-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by the suspected paedophile who was arrested on Tuesday for raping and filming the abuse of four children.
“We have received the medical report of one of the four victims and it has corroborated with what the victim has alleged against the 35-year-old accused,” a senior police investigator told The Nation yesterday night.
Investigators seized a large collection of videos and photographs of the assaults from the suspect’s mobile phone and computer hard drive during a raid on his shop in Vani Tarrar police precincts.
Shahid Imran, known locally as ‘Chairman’, was arrested after police examined the videos and photographs and saw images and scenes of him abusing the children. DNA tests have been requested, police said.
The raid was carried out after the parents of the victims, all young boys, formally complained to the police.
Earlier, there had been claims that there were more than 40 victims, but police said so far they had only confirmed four.
The case emerged amid growing concern over the protection of children in Punjab following the Kasur scandal in which more than 280 children were raped and abused and filmed by a child pornography and extortion gang.
A police spokeswoman last night confirmed Shahid Imran’s arrest. “At least four separate cases have been filed on the complaint of parents of the victims while the police are also complainant in the fifth case lodged against Shahid.” The accused and the victims were brought to Lahore by police for DNA test on Wednesday.
District Police Officer Shakir Hussain Dawar said the accused was in the custody of local police on physical remand and he would be produced before the court on Thursday (today). The police reacted quickly, arrested the accused, and recovered some material from his shop, he said.
“Most of the (porn) videos recovered from the accused were downloaded from the internet,” Hussain clarified. However, a police source said they also seized a video clip which shows the accused harassing a naked boy on camera.
Punjab Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera, a day earlier, took notice of the reports related to child sex abuse and ordered DPO Hafizabad to send back a detailed report about the incident. The DPO’s report has confirmed four cases so far.