LAHORE - An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday sentenced three culprits to life imprisonment for their involvement in Kasur child abuse scandal surfaced during 2015.
ATC-IV Judge Chaudhary Muhammd Ilyas announced the conviction after the suspects were found guilty of sexually abusing the minors. The judge also imposed fine of Rs300,000 each on Haseem Amir, Waseem Sindhi and Aleem Arif.
Earlier, in another FIR, the court awarded life imprisonment to Faizan Majeed and Haseem Amir but acquitted them in one of the FIRs giving benefit of doubt. In some of the cases, the trial court deleted section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act from the FIRs and referred the trials of the suspects to sessions court. However, the Lahore High Court allowed appeal moved by prosecution department and set aside the decision of the trial court in which the cases were sent to ordinary courts.
Ghanda Singh Wala police, Kasur, had lodged FIR 219/15 against 25 people allegedly involved in torturing and abusing children in Kasur district. According to police, at least 300 children were sexually abused in the village.
The majority of victims were around 14 years of age but there were two victims who were below the 10 years of age.
Over 400 video recordings of more than 280 children forced to have sex had surfaced three years ago while parents and victim families took to streets to raise voice against the scandal in Hussain Khanwala village, a village in Kasur.
It is the same district where 12 minor girls including Zainab Amin were raped and murdered. Imran Ali, the alleged rapist and serial killer, is undergoing trial at Kot Lakhpat jail.
