A tale of horror

At least 400 child pornography videos. At least 280 children sexually abused. Police sheltering the suspects. It is a day of reckoning for the self-styled ‘land of the pure’. The story that has emerged from a village, Ganda Sindh Wala, in district Kasur is more horrific than anything that could have been written up by writers of horror stories. The case counts as the worst child abuse case ever recorded in the country, maybe anywhere in the world. The numbers are made more shocking by the fact that the abuse had been going on since 2006, with perhaps hundreds of people being involved and thousands having purchased the videos of child molestation at Rs50 each.The fact that an influential politician, a PML-N MPA, is allegedly involved in attempting to protect the ringleader of the gang which abused child after child, made videos and then extorted money from the parents of the children or forced the children to themselves commit acts of sexual violence makes things worse still. The videos were sold in the market, used to blackmail parents who paid up for years to prevent the films going public and, according to some of the victims, sold to buyers based in Europe and the UK. There is however much confusion over the whole matter. The Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has denied that the hundreds of cases of child abuse took place, said the allegation stemmed from a mundane land abuse case between two parties involving 19 acres of land and that this had been reported to the chief minister after he had ordered an inquiry. Police have backed this version, denying there had been any major protest over the abuse. But the people of the village, including the parents whose children were victims, insist the incidents happened.
The fact is that no one, not even those comfortably reading this newspaper at home, took the issue of child sexual abuse seriously when the Javed Iqbal case emerged. If history is anything to go by then this case will also become a much talked

about, much frowned upon incident before any real change takes place in our social, political and legal structure. This case highlights very well the real face of the vulnerability of the poor and the underprivileged. The romantic notion of family, shelter and protection did not save these children – who were mainly exploited for having been part of that part of society that has little or no access to justice. It seems some powerful persons wish to simply put a cover over the whole sordid affair carried in dingy backrooms and in fields or sheds around the village. Even faced with a situation as appalling as this, police who have made seven arrests reportedly also harassed villagers who had staged a protest. Involving other countries, if the videos were indeed sold overseas, is imperative since we appear to lack the will to do very much ourselves. This is a shocking indictment of police inefficiency and administrative apathy that this has not happened even though the videos have been circulating for nearly a decade and families, too ashamed to speak out because of the social stigmas of our society and also possibly because they apprehended they would not get justice, have continued to live tortured lives. This cannot be treated as an ordinary case. The desperation for this has already been shown by villagers who clashed with police in an incident in which 25 were injured. The suffering of these people needs to be eased. There is only one thing that may reassure them – the shame is not theirs; it is ours as a nation. Whenever there has been a public discussion on high amounts of child sexual abuse in the country, it has been collectively shut up. We can begin to change that today by admitting: ‘shame on us’.