A Pakistani paedophile who claimed he didn't realise it was illegal to have sex with year-olds intends to use his conviction for grooming to help him claim asylum in the UK. Adil Sultan, 39, thought he was chatting to a schoolgirl online, where he encouraged her to send him explicit photos of herself and meet up with him for sex. But he was actually exchanging messages with the vigilante group Guardians of the North, who intercepted him and handed him over to the police. He has now been jailed for 17 months after pleading guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. Newcastle Crown Court heard Sultan, who had posed as a year-old and used a fake online name, believed 'it was ok' to have sex with a girl of
BBC News Navigation
More Reading
Updated : 3 months ago. Muhimman proudly writes his name slowly, carefully, one letter at a time, grinning broadly as he finishes. He's just 11 years old and was a good student who had dreams of being a doctor. School frightens him now. Earlier this year, a cleric at the religious school he faithfully attended in the southern Punjab town of Pakpattan took him into a washroom and tried to rape him. Muhimman's aunt, Shazia, who wanted only her first name used, said she believes the abuse of young children is endemic in Pakistan's religious schools. She said she has known the cleric, Moeed Shah, since she was a little girl and describes him as a habitual abuser who used to ask little girls to pull up their shirts. An investigation by The Associated Press found dozens of police reports, known here as First Information Reports, alleging sexual harassment, rape and physical abuse by Islamic clerics teaching in madrassas or religious schools throughout Pakistan, where many of the country's poorest study.
Goa: Women SHGs prepare masks to help nation fight COVID-19
School frightens him now. Earlier this year, a cleric at the religious school he faithfully attended in the southern Punjab town of Pakpattan took him into a washroom and tried to rape him. She said she has known the cleric, Moeed Shah, since she was a little girl and describes him as an habitual abuser who used to ask little girls to pull up their shirts. The AP also documented cases of abuse through interviews with law enforcement officials, abuse victims and their parents. The alleged victims who spoke for this story did so with the understanding only their first names would be used. There are more than 22, registered madrassas in Pakistan, teaching more than 2 million children. But there are many more religious schools that are unregistered. They are typically started by a local cleric in a poor neighborhood, attracting students with a promise of a meal and free lodging.
Help us continue to fight human rights abuses. Please give now to support our work. Yesterday, Pakistani news anchor Kiran Naz went on the air with her young daughter to protest on camera the rape and killing of Zainab Ansari, a 7-year-old girl, whose body was dumped in a pile of garbage. Zainab went missing on January 4 and her brutalized corpse was discovered five days later, leading to widespread protests in Pakistan. The cruel indifference of some crimes can shake a nation. But too often, incidents of child sex abuse remain hidden. According to the Islamabad-based nongovernmental organization Sahil, an average of 11 cases of child sexual abuse are reported daily across Pakistan. Zainab was among the dozen children to be murdered in Kasur district in Punjab province in the past year. In , police identified a gang of child sex abusers in the same district.
