Four members of an illegal pornography ring involved in raping, blackmailing, and the filming of sexual abuse of minors have been arrested in Karachi, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the media on Tuesday.
Previously two other members of the same criminal organization were detained durings raids and search operations in several of Karachi’s neighbourhoods which included Gulistan-e-Johar and a housing society situated at Drigh Road.
Porn ring baited victims by advertising fake employment opportunities
All six members were allegedly complicit in raping, sodomising, filming sexual abuse of minors, creating and distrubuting pornographic videos, and blackmailing the victims by using clips of their sexual asasult, reports highlighted.
Faizullah Korejo additional director at the agency’s cyber crime cell in Karachi told Geo News that the porn ring had developed their own mobile application and websites specifically targeted towards gay people, lesbians and transgenders.
Any minors or individuals who stumbled upon the websites or used the mobile app were sent links to WhatsApp groups and other social media sites citing fake employment opportunities at call centres as bait.
Video recordings deterred victims from reporting the crimes
FIA told how unsuspecting victims who fell prey to these baits of fake employment opportunities were subjected to sexual abuse while held at gunpoint when they arrived in the specified area, and the horrific incidents were then filmed by the porn ring members.
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The videos were then uploaded on the internet, and were used to blackmail the victims who had been raped and sodomised. Several such videos were found in mobile phones and laptops of the arrested porn ring members. Further investigation is underway to find out connections to other such porn rings.
Read more: Child Rapist Awarded Death Penalty in Lahore
The suspects that have been arrested have confessed to sexually abusing young men and multiple boys. Many of the victims chose not to press charges since their traumatic experiences were recorded and they feared humiliation and slander at the hands of people in society. However the the presence of the porn ring became known only when one of the victims contacted the FIA.
Torched body of minor girl taken for autopsy
After the tragic incident of 6 year old Zainab in 2018, Pakistan again saw the ugly face of child rape in its communities, as a 5 year old girl was reported missing and was found raped and murdered, 2 days later.
PIB police station Station House Officer (SHO) Shakir Husain said “that the five-year-old victim, Marwah, had been kidnapped and raped before being murdered and torched”. The girl’s body was found in piles of garbage on an empty plot of land in the Old Sabzi Mandi where she was reported missing 2 days prior.
The body was taken to Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre where a post-mortem examination was conducted. According to the autopsy report, the victim had been sexually assaulted and had died from head injuries.
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A suspect has been taken into custody for interrogation, the SHO said. The kidnapping, rape and murder of the child has angered the people residing in the area, who took to the streets to stage a protest on the Main University Road, after her burial in the morning. Some men, carrying sticks, were seen asking commuters to take alternative routes and the main road from Hasan Square to New Town was closed for traffic.
GVS News Desk with additional input by other sources