LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court remanded on Wednesday another seven suspects in the Kasur child abuse case in police custody for 27 days.

Ganda Singhwala police produced the suspects — Abdul Mannan, Khalid, Naseem, Sabir, Umar, Sufiyan and Rai Basharat — before the court under strict security measures.

The investigating officer informed the court that the suspects had been nominated in the case and, therefore, their physical remand was required for interrogation and collection of evidence, including alleged video clips of the child abuse. He sought 30 days’ remand, but the counsel for the suspects opposed it and alleged that police had implicated his clients on government’s pressure.

The counsel said the suspects had no role in the alleged child abuse scandal and requested the court to grant them bail. But the court allowed 27-day physical remand of the suspects and directed the investigating officer to produce them at the next hearing, along with other five suspects remanded the other day.

On Tuesday, the court had given police 28-day physical remand of Mohammad Yahiya, Waseem Abid, Aleem Asif, Saleem Akhtar Sherazi and Atiqur Rehman. Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court directed the head of joint investigation team (JIT) to submit a detailed report on the matter.

Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik issued the order during the hearing of a petition demanding the trial of the case in an anti-terrorism court.

Punjab Home Secretary Azam Salman Khan, Inspector General Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, JIT head DIG Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh and other officials appeared before the court.

IG Sukhera informed the court that seven cases had been registered so far on complaints received by police. He said he himself had visited Kasur and persuaded people to lodge complaints, if any, about the alleged incidents of child abuse. He said police had arrested 12 suspects and raids were being conducted to arrest the rest.

DIG Bakhsh said 30 video clips had been recovered from the suspects, adding that investigation was in progress in the light of the video evidence.

An additional advocate general informed the court that provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act had been added to the FIRs and the suspects were on physical remand.

At this, the chief justice told the petitioner’s counsel that the government had already inserted the ATA provisions in the case as requested in the petition.

Advocate Aftab Bajwa, the counsel, made another request and said the JIT should be headed by an ISI officer and comprise officials of other secret agencies. But the law officer said a secret agency official could not head the JIT under the law and it could be headed only by a police officer.

Later talking to Dawn, IG Mushtaq Sukhera said the department had to follow a set procedure to take action against the police officers who showed ‘criminal’ negligence in their duty. He said he had ordered an inquiry against the Kasur DPO, city circle DSP and SHO to determine if they were involved in patronising the accused.

The IG said the officials who had already been transferred would not only be dismissed from service but would also face criminal charges if the inquiry found them guilty of protecting the suspects.

Meanwhile, police officials in Lahore told Dawn that collusion of Kasur police with the suspects and indifferent attitude of the district administration had caused unrest among parents and relatives of the victims.

A senior police officer said the affected people had repeatedly approached the district police officer and protested against the station house officer (SHO) but the former remained indifferent to their agony. He said that whenever parents of the victims would approach the SHO of Ganda Singhwala police station he would merely record their images on his mobile phone. “Within an hour or so, the suspect would approach the complainants with those images and threaten to upload the video clips relating to abuse of their children on internet,” the officer added. He said the affected children and their parents had somehow managed to hold a demonstration outside the Chief Minister House in Lahore, but the matter was hushed up by the police officers concerned.

Again the parents in large numbers tried to reach Lahore to protest against the ghastly act but were stopped at Mustafabad. The situation turned unruly when the protesters allegedly resisted pol­ice move to disperse them with batons and teargas.

The officer said the chief of Punjab Special Branch had been removed from the post for misguiding the chief minister as he declared the protesters as peasants having land dispute.

Our Correspondent in Kasur adds: The JIT headed by DIG Khuda Bakhsh started investigation in Kasur’s Hussain Khanwala village where the crimes had been committed.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2015

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