RAWALPINDI: Police have arrested a man for sexually abusing children and broadcasting and sharing videos and photos of his assaults on the dark web.

The man is a chartered accountant who also served as a consultant for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Secretariat department. He was previously imprisoned in the United Kingdom and deported from Italy for child sexual abuse.

Police have been seeking the suspect’s travel history from the Federal Investigation Agency. Saddar Superintendent of Police (SP) Rai Mazhar Iqbal told Dawn he confessed to sexually assaulting 30 children in Pakistan during police interrogation. He is also suspected of uploading videos of minors to the dark web.

The suspect was caught after the mother of one of his victims, a tea-boy working in Bahria Town, told Rawat police that her son was abducted by a person in a blue car who held him for four days, drugged him and sexually assaulted him.

The victim said in his FIR that he was assaulted by the suspect for four days and filmed.

The suspect threatened to circulate the video of him on social media. The victim was freed after four days, after which an FIR was registered against the suspect and he was arrested.

He had previously been convicted for sexually abusing minor in Britain, where he was associated with a child protection organisation, and was extradited after completing his sentence. He was also tried in Italy for involvement in child sexual abuse and deported.

During his time in Pakistan, the suspect was a well-paid consultant for the KP Civil Secretariat department. His wife left him nine years ago and he is estranged from his parents and siblings, SP Mazhar said.

City Police Officer Mohammad Faisal Rana has ordered coordination with the Federal Investigation Agency to recover videos and images of the suspect’s victims. He has also directed the police to become the complainant in each incident of abuse in and around Rawalpindi in the event that the victim’s parents are not willing to lodge a complaint.

Police raids were underway to recover mobile phones, laptop computers and other devices the suspect was using to film and upload images and videos of his victims.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2019