Kasur_child_sexual_abuse_scandal
Kasur child sexual abuse scandal
Serial child sexual abuse scandal in Kasur District, Punjab, Pakistan from 2006 to 2015
The Kasur child sexual abuse scandal is a series of child sexual abuses that occurred in Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur District, Punjab, Pakistan from 2006 to 2014, culminating in a major political scandal in 2015. After the discovery of hundreds of video clips showing children performing forced sex acts, various Pakistani media organizations estimated that 280 to 300 children, most of them male, were victims of sexual abuse.[1] The scandal involved an organized crime ring that sold child pornography to porn sites, and blackmailed and extorted relatives of the victims.[2]
The scandal caused nationwide outrage,[2] among allegations that the Punjab police and Malik Ahmad Saeed Khan, Kasur's Member of the Provincial Assembly from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), were involved in an attempted cover-up of the abuse.[3]
It is cited by both news agencies and government departments as the largest child abuse scandal in Pakistan's history.[4] Besides large-scale public condemnation, 50 Pakistani clergy and religious scholars issued a fatwa (religious decree) for capital punishment of the culprits, and demanded that the government console the victims and their parents.[5]