BATTAGRAM: A court in Battagram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has awarded 24 years imprisonment each to two accused who sexually abused a student and blackmailed him due to which he committed suicide.

Additional Sessions Judge Battagram announced the verdict in the case pertaining to sexual abuse of an orphan student, who was sexually abused by two accused and then blackmailed through immoral video of the abuse. The court has also imposed Rs1.4 million each fine on both the accused and their parents have also been ordered to submit the amount of diyet to the family of the victim boy.

The incident happened in Shangli Bala area of Battagram in March last year where two accused, Aamir and Anas sexually abused a student, Adnan, and also filmed the rape and took pictures as well. The accused even after sexual abuse used to blackmail the student by showing him the video and pictures and were pressuring him to indulge into sexual act with them again. Fearing dishonour and insult in society, the student ended his life by hanging himself.

Police arrested the accused few days after the incident. The accused during interrogation confessed to their crime.

Despite strict punishments awarded by the courts to culprits involved in sexual abuse of boys and girls, such incidents are continuously happening in KP, which is a matter of grave concern for law enforcers and society at large.

Aminullah Mohmand, social activist and chairman of Hamqadam Youth of Pakistan, said in a recent interview with TNN that child abuse is increasing in our society like dengue virus. He said it is the responsibility of parents to keep their children under their watch. He said most of the times, children become victim of sexual abuse due to negligence of parents. Maulana Hafiz Salmanul Haq Haqqani, a teacher at Darul Uloom Haqqania, said Almighty Allah will not bestow mercy upon a person on the Judgement Day who indulges into sexual abuse. He said sexual abusers must be punished under Shariah Law.

Salman Shahzad, a lawyer at the Peshawar High Court, also agrees with Maulana Salmanul Haq. He said such punishments must be given to culprits which could serve a lesion for other people.

Sahil, an NGO working on protecting children from sexual and other abuses, in its biannual report said 729 girls and 575 boys became victim of sexual abuse in Pakistan in first six months of 2019. Similarly, 378 children were kidnapped and 12 boys and four girls were killed after sexual abuse.