QUETTA: Police arrested two men including Hidayat Khilji on Thursday for allegedly forcing women to record inappropriate videos that they later shared. Police said both suspects, who are said to be brothers, were arrested after police started investigating the incident. The suspects have been remanded into police custody for 14 days for interrogation.
Initial investigation into the episode revealed that the suspects tricked women by offering them jobs. Later, they would force them to record inappropriate videos that they would later share.
The police further stated that the mobile phones, videos, USBs and other devices containing the videos have been sent for forensic analysis. The Federal Investigation Agency’s cybercrime cell has also been contacted for assistance, police said.
Meanwhile, an investigation team headed by SSP Operations Abdul Haq has been formed to investigate the case. Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo took notice of the matter and ordered strict action against the culprits. “The culprits will be brought to justice,” the chief minister vowed.
Addressing a press conference in Quetta, DIG Fida Hussain said that a woman filed a complaint with the police regarding the abduction of her two daughters.
“The woman blamed that Hidayat Khilji and his brother Khalil abducted them and raped them,” he said, adding that obscene videos and pictures of the two girls were also shared on different social media platforms.
The DIG said that they immediately acted against the suspects and arrested them after registering a case against them. “Laptop, mobile phones and other devices have been recovered from their possession,” the DIG police said and announced a team comprising senior police officials to investigate the matter.
He further rejected reports being shared on social media regarding the higher number of women being quoted on social media who faced abduction and filming of obscene videos at their hands.
The arrest of Hidayat Khilji was reported on October 3 after police claimed to have arrested the head of a gang involved in blackmailing girls after raping and filming their obscene videos.
Police claimed that the accused raped the girls after luring them into the trap by offering jobs. They revealed that the girls were intoxicated by the accused before raping them.
According to the FIR registered on December 2, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the mother said that the two suspects — brothers H* and K* — had been blackmailing her two daughters, aged 19 and 16 years, in different ways for two years.
“They have been forcing them into prostitution after recording [their] nude videos and photos and threatening them,” the FIR quoted her as saying. It added that four to five days ago (from the time of the FIR’s registration), the suspects had blackmailed her daughters, abducted them and shot nude videos and photographs which they spread on social media.
Violence was also being inflicted on the girls in the footage, according to the complaint. The mother said she had captured the evidence on a USB and requested the initiation of legal proceedings against the suspects.
The investigating officer in the case, Quaidabad Station House Officer (SHO) Ijaz Ahmed, told Dawn.com that H* had been arrested on Dec 2 and many inappropriate videos of girls were found from his possession, and his laptop, various mobiles and other devices were seized.
“The suspect drugged the young girls after luring them with the prospect of jobs and then blackmailed them after making [their] obscene videos,” the SHO said. He added that the suspect was produced before the court of Quetta’s judicial magistrate and was remanded in police custody for seven days.
According to the SHO, a high-level investigation team had been formed to interrogate the suspect and the police were conducting raids to arrest the remaining gang members.
He added the suspect’s brother, K*, had also been arrested on Thursday and was being interrogated.