Kasur child abuse: Court acquits 12 for lack of evidence

LAHORE: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday acquitted 12 accused in child sexual abuse scandal of Kasur after the prosecution failed to prove charges against them.

The accused including Haseem Amir, Waseem Sindhi, Aleem Asif and others, have been acquitted in FIR 190/2015. ATC Judge Ilyas Ahmad announced the verdict after the witnesses failed to recognise the accused.

Earlier, the court had awarded life imprisonment to three accused involved in the Kasur video scandal.

Various FIRs were registered in the Kasur child abuse scandal and Waseem Sindhi was nominated in different FIRs. In August 2015, a mega scandal of child sex abuse was unearthed. It revealed a gang of organised criminals producing and selling videos of child sexual abuse in the village of Hussain Khanwala of Kasur for the last many years. It was termed the biggest scandal of such nature in the country's history, revealing that around 400 videos were made of 280 minor victims by the organised gang of over 25 criminals.

Parents of minors were consistently blackmailed and coerced into paying hundreds of thousands of rupees with threats of releasing the videos in public.