FAISALABAD: The chief minister has formed a committee to investigate the recently reported alleged rape cases by paedophiles in Jaranwala.

Chief Minister’s Inspection Team chairman Abdul Jabbar Shaheen will be convener of the four-member committee while Sheikhupura Regional Police Officer Zulfiqar Hameed, an expert from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency and a police officer its members.

Four more families turned up with complaints since one such case was reported by media on Monday last and police registered four cases -- three with the Jaranwala city and one with the Saddar police on Tuesday.

The order issued by the special secretary to the CM (law and order) Zahid Saleem Gondal reads: “Chief minister has shown grave concern over sodomy/sexual assault on children at Jaranwala, highlighted by electronic media.” The committee has been tasked to expose the gangsters involved in the scandal, figure out the number of children and get other details including what action was taken by police when the first case was reported.

The committee is also supposed to find out if there is a role of police in concealing the scandal instead of stemming it at an initial stage by taking stern action against the culprits, and fix responsibility. It has been directed to furnish the chief minister with a report within three days.

An applicant told the Saddar police that about one year ago his 17-year-old son had gone to meet three persons at an outhouse but did not return. He said he, along with two other persons, visited the outhouse and found his son raped by the suspects.

The cases were registered under section 292-C, 377 and 377-B of the PPC.

In another case, police inspector Ghulam Asghar Tahir said a teenager had told him that some youngsters had taken him to a deserted place where they raped him and recorded it in a video. The boy, whose father had passed away a couple of years ago, alleged that the suspects had raped him at gunpoint and threatened him with dire consequences for exposing them.

In yet another case, a resident of Anwarabad said three people raped him about seven to eight months ago in a sugarcane field and made a video.

The Jaranwala city police registered a case against a suspect who is alleged to have raped a young resident of Housing Colony about two years ago. The boy’s father alleged that the suspect also clubbed his son.

Meanwhile, a source said the videos recovered from the mobile phone of a suspect in custody had been handed over to a senior police officer two months ago but he asked his subordinates to remain tight-lipped over the issue. The officer denies the allegation.

One of the suspects secured his pre-arrest bail three days ago, said the source.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2018