KASUR: Victims of Hussain Khanwala child abuse scandal continued their boycott of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the fifth consecutive day and refused to appear before it to record their statements on Friday.

They said they would continue their boycott till the cancellation of cases against them.

Mobeen Ghaznavi, a representative of the victims, and Advocate Latif Sara told a press conference on Friday that the decision of long march would be taken after meeting Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Meanwhile, the Ganda Singh police registered another case against an accused for forcing a complainant family to withdraw the case.

Sakina Bibi had a case registered claiming that Kalsoom Bibi, wife of accused Yahya, and other members of the family thrashed her and forced her to withdraw the case.

This is the 23rd case against any accused and the first one for pressuring an affected family to withdraw the case. Police had already registered cases against 800 villagers for attacking and injuring policemen. Four villagers have been booked for allegedly killing a relative of an accused. Police have yet to register a case against a victim who is accused in a video (victim in one video and accused in another).

Just a few days ago, MNA Malik Rasheed Khan and MPA Malik Ahmed held a meeting with the victims and their representatives at their outhouse at Fatehpur village.

They assured the victims that justice would be done, urging them to avoid long march which was not a solution.

They also promised that he would try to arrange a meeting between them and the chief minister.

A press conference to announce the date of long march on Thursday was cancelled after an assurance about meeting with the chief minister.

Police have established a post (chowki) in the village and hundreds of officials have been deployed to avoid any untoward situation.

District Police Officer Ali Nasir Rizvi told Dawn that first priority of police was to maintain peace in the area. He said police had taken all stakeholders on board to ensure peace and justice.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2015

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