Child rapist running pornography gang abused 30 children in Pakistan: police

RAWALPINDI: The leader of an international child rapist gang who live-streamed abuse was arrested on Tuesday, police confirmed, adding that he has confessed to sexually assaulting 30 children during the questioning.

Rawalpindi police said the suspect, a man named Sohail Ayaz — arrested from the city's Rawat area — ran a child pornography group and live-streamed videos of the sexual assaults on the 'dark web'. Ayaz is suspected to have kidnapped and raped multiple children.

Ayaz worked as a consultant for the KP Governance & Policy Project

Ayaz was working with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governance and Policy Project as a consultant. According to Rawalpindi Police, Ayaz was deriving a salary of Rs300,000 and other benefits from the project since the past two years. 

"The suspect is 46 years old and is a Chartered Accountant," said a spokesperson of the Rawalpindi Police. "He has been living in Rawalpindi's DHA Phase 8 area since 2009 when he was deported from the UK."

According to police, Ayaz's marriage ended in a divorce and he has a daughter as well. 

He used to spend most of his salary on the equipment used to record the live-streaming of rapes. 

"We have sent his laptop and equipment to the forensic lab for tests," said the spokesperson.  

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Police have registered a first information report (FIR) against him.

According to the city police officer (CPO) for Rawalpindi, Captain Faisal Rana, the alleged sexual predator has confessed to raping at least 30 minors and was earlier deported from both Britain and Italy after serving jail sentences for similar crimes.

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CPO Rana further noted that the suspect was employed at a child protection institution in Britain and that it was there that he started to sexually abuse children. Pictures and videos were recovered from the arrested suspect.

The latest of Ayaz's crimes was when he raped a labourer's daughter, police explained, stressing that more confessions were expected from him. Some reports indicate that he drugged and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy for four days and filmed the traumatic ordeal to threaten the child.

Further, Rawalpindi Police citing CPO Rana mentioned on Twitter that police would register cases of child abuse on its behalf if the survivors' parents were unable to do so due to societal pressure.

Rana added that they also approached federal law enforcement agencies to recover the children's explicit videos and pictures from the possession of the suspect.

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