The Kasur child sexual abuse scandal is a series of

child sexual abuse Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in Human sexual activity, sexual activit ...

s that occurred in Hussain Khanwala village in

Kasur District Kasur District ( Punjabi, ), is a district located in Lahore Division of Punjab, Pakistan. It came into existence on 1 July 1976; prior to its creation, the area comprised two tehsils ( Kasur Tehsil and Chunian Tehsil) of Lahore District. Acc ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

from 2006 to 2014, culminating in a major

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, Political party, party officials and Lobbying, lobbyists can be accused of various ...

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. The scandal involved an

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

ring that sold

child pornography Child pornography (also abbreviated as CP, also called child porn or kiddie porn, and child sexual abuse material, known by the acronym CSAM (underscoring that children can not be deemed willing participants under law)), is Eroticism, erotic ma ...

porn sites Internet pornography or online pornography is any pornography that is accessible over the Internet; primarily via websites, FTP connections, peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups. The greater accessibility of the World Wide Web from the ...

, and

blackmailed Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat ...

and

extorted Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded t ...

relatives of the victims. The scandal caused nationwide outrage, among allegations that the Punjab police and Malik Ahmad Saeed Khan, Kasur's

Member of the Provincial Assembly A Member of the Provincial Assembly, or MPA is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to the legislature or legislative assembly of a subnational jurisdiction. In Pakistan, the members are elected by the voters in provi ...

from the ruling

Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) The Pakistan Muslim League (N) or (PML(N)) is a centre-right, conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate and the largest in the National Assembly. The party was founded in 1993, when a num ...

, were involved in an attempted cover-up of the abuse. It is cited by both

news agencies A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...

and government departments as the largest child abuse scandal in Pakistan's history. Besides large-scale public condemnation, 50

Pakistani clergy Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

and religious scholars issued a

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

(religious decree) for capital punishment of the culprits, and demanded that the government console the victims and their parents.

Abuse

Ashraf Javed, a

staff reporter Staff may refer to: Pole * Walking staff, an instrument used for balance when walking * Staff, a weapon used in stick-fighting ** Quarterstaff, a European pole weapon * Staff of office, a pole that indicates a position * Staff (railway signalling ...

for ''The Nation'', broke the news that a gang of 20 to 25 men had allegedly filmed up to 400 videos of

, involving at least 280 children of Hussain Khanwala village in

Kasur Kasur (Punjabi language, Punjabi / ; ; also Romanization, romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word ''Qasr'' meaning "palaces" or "forts") is a city to the south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. The city s ...

. In one instance, the father of one of the victims was blackmailed into paying PKR 1.2 million to the abusers, who had threatened to release a video of his son being raped.

Police involvement

Clash between police and protesters

On 8 August 2015, villagers from Hussain Khanwala and adjacent villages clashed with policemen in Dolaywala village along Deepalpur Road, after protesting the police's failure to stop the abuse ring. Police cordoned off the roads leading to the village to stop the protesters; As a police contingent tried to halt the mob led by Mobeen Ahmed, the latter pelted stones. Police

teargas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial self-defense spray, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce ...

sed and

baton charge A baton charge is a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people, usually used by police, paramilitary or military in response to public disorder. In the Indian subcontinent, a long bamboo stick, called a '' lathi'' in Bengali, Hindi, ...

d the crowd, which then damaged official vehicles on Deepalpur Road. DSPs Hassan Farooq Ghumman and Arif Rasheed; Ganda Singh SHO Akmal Kausar; policemen Akbar, Sajid, Riaz, Naeem, Ahmed Ali, Akbar Ghani and Muhammad Akmal; and 15 protesters were injured in the clash.

Government reaction

Rana Sanaullah controversy

The Government of Punjab's initial statement came from Punjab Minister of Law

Rana Sanaullah Rana Sanaullah Khan (; born 1 January 1955) is a Pakistani lawyer and politician who is currently serving as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs since April 2024. Previously, he served as the 39th Interior Minister of Pak ...

on 8 August 2015, who stated that a government inquiry committee concluded that no instance of child sex abuse had been reported. Sanaullah said that "reports to this effect surfaced after two parties involved in a

land dispute A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of territories (land, water or airspace) between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the pos ...

registered 'fake cases' against each other."

Chief Minister's reaction

On 9 August 2015, the Chief Minister of Punjab

Shehbaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who has served as the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously been in the role between Ap ...

ordered the Punjab Home Department to request Chief Justice of the

Lahore High Court The Lahore High Court () is a provincial court house based in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was established as a high court on 21 March 1882. The Lahore High Court has jurisdiction over the province of Punjab. The High Court's principal seat is ...

Manzoor Ahmed Malik to constitute a judicial inquiry into the sex abuse case. On the next day, the Chief Justice rejected the request, observing that the Punjab police was already investigating the case hence there was no need of a separate judicial commission.

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em 2015 crimes in Pakistan 2015 in Punjab, Pakistan 2015 scandals 2000s crimes in Punjab, Pakistan 2010s crimes in Punjab, Pakistan Child sexual abuse in Pakistan Child pornography Incidents of violence against boys child sexual abuse scandal Pakistani commissions and inquiries Pornography in Pakistan Rape in Pakistan Rape in the 2000s Rape in the 2010s Scandals in Pakistan Child sexual abuse cover-ups Violence against children