THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan might have plunged to an all-time low after the Pulwama terror attack, but that has not hampered the give-and-take relationship between the child sexual predators of both countries. The recent investigation into the Keralites who are circulating pornographic content involving children has stumbled upon the Pakistani angle.
The Counter Child Sexual Exploitation (CCSE) unit of Kerala Police has found that a large number of Indians, mostly Keralites, are members of the social media groups whose admins are from Pakistan. An equal number of Pakistanis are members of similar groups run by Indians. This chilling information came out during the third phase of Operation P-Hunt launched by Kerala Police and technically assisted by the Interpol.
As many as 12 persons were arrested and 20 cases registered in the third phase of the operation that was set in motion this April to counter child pornography after it was noticed that a large number of people from the state were hooked on to viewing and sharing obscene materials involving children, which is a crime that can invite a jail sentence of five years and a hefty fine.
Police sources said five-six social media groups that dealt with extremely repugnant content were detected and those groups had a large number of Indians and Pakistanis on board.
“Some of them had Pakistanis as admins. We could identify them as they used +92 country code which belonged to Pakistan,” a source said.
This perverted cooperation, the agencies have found out, began in Gulf countries where the people from both places worked together.
“Such groups started there and when the members returned to their respective places, they added more people from those areas in the group. Thus, the volume of membership rose to several thousands and they mostly dealt with child pornography,” said an officer who was part of Operation P-Hunt.
Cyberdome nodal officer ADGP Manoj Abraham, who is monitoring Operation P-Hunt, said several such groups being used by paedophiles from across the border have been identified. Hi-tech Cell Assistant Commissioner Starmon R Pillai said most of such groups operated on Telegram and WhatsApp.
CHILD PORN
12 persons were arrested and 20 cases registered in the third phase of the operation launched in April
The perverted cooperation began in the Gulf countries where the persons had worked together in the past
Counter Child Sexual Exploitation unit of Kerala Police found several Indians, mostly Keralites, are members of the social media groups whose admins are from Pakistan