Child porn accused remanded

Our correspondent

LAHORE: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Monday obtained four-day remand of child pornography accused Taimoor Maqsood.

The FIA arrested Taimoor on Sunday from Jhang and recovered digital media of the accused including mobile phones, a computer, a PTCL modem, laptops, etc. The FIA officials also recovered 60 GB data containing child pornography videos from his laptops. They said Taimoor is a graduate from University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore.

The FIA took action on the complaint of National Child Exploitation Centre, Interpol Ottawa, Canada against child pornography /exploitation. FIA Director General Muhammad Bashir Ahmed Memon has formed a two-member team led by Imran Haider to investigate cases of child pornography in Pakistan.

It may be relevant to mention here that in April last year, FIA, Punjab, had arrested accused Saadat Amin, 45, from Sargodha. He had confessed to selling child pornography online for the last several years. He also told the FIA investigators that he lured more than 25 children on the pretext of educating them about computer. He would even pay Rs 3,000 to 5,000 to the parents of victim children for imparting them computer education. The FIA investigators had also recovered over 65, 000 videos from the digital media recovered from him. Saadat Amin alias Uncle Manto had clients in countries like Finland, England, Norway, and UAE whom he would share those videos of children to get payments, and the payments were made to him through Western Union and Money Gram.

Norwegian Embassy was the complainant in that case which told the FIA that Scandinavian racketeers had links in Sargodha for obnoxious crime of immoral movies. “Amin was alleged of being a part of larger pedophile network and having links with a Norwegian national, James Lindstrom,” the embassy communicated.

Amin was a resident of Malakwal, Mandi Bahauddin and a graduate of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Taxila Campus. Amin had moved to Sargodha to run this heinous activity.

Similarly, FIA has also arrested another accused, Nabeel, from Attock. He used to blackmail and film a boy of Gujrat. Talking to The News, Deputy Director Cyber Crimes of FIA, Punjab, Khalid Anees said so far three cases have been registered against child pornography in Punjab. He said as per Section 22 of Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), accused involved in such crimes would get up to 7 years of imprisonment. To a question, the DD said people should come forward and play their role in arresting such criminals as FIA alone can’t succeed.