Pakistan: Religious leader arrested for abusing, blackmailing minor girl

A Pakistani religious leader has been arrested on Friday for collecting "obscene" images of a minor girl and blackmailing the family. 

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) crime cell arrested the suspect following a successful raid, Faizullah Korejo, the agency's additional director at its Cybercrime Reporting Centre in Karachi said as reported by Dawn. 

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Korejo said a "brave mother" informed them that they have appointed a Qari (religious teacher) to teach Quran to her children at home. 

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Later, the 13-year-old child complained that the teacher is "physically abusing" her while teaching and was even in possession of "obscene" images of her for blackmailing. 

The accused also sent the photographs to the girl's mother via Whatsapp for blackmailing. 

"The accused was threatening the family that if his unethical demands were not met, he would make the pictures viral on social media," said Korejo.

The FIA official said that then one of their teams conducted a raid to nab the suspect. 

The suspect was arrested and his mobile phone was confiscated that showed "obscene" image of the minor, Korejo said.

The religious leader has been booked under various sections of Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 and Pakistan Penal Code. 

The FIA took service of a stress counsellor for the minor victim to give her professional counselling.