On Wednesday, a Lahore anti-terrorism court returned the suspect behind the murder of four minor children in Chunian, Suhail Shehzad, in police custody for 15 days.
The court also ordered a medical examination of the suspect.
The hearing was chaired by Judge Abdul Qayum Khan. Deputy Attorney General Abdul Rauf Watoo was also present.
The suspect was carried with a black hood over his head, which led the judge to ask why this had been done, so security reasons were answered.
"What's your name?" The court asked the suspect. "Do you want to declare something for the record?"
"Please, don't let the police beat me in custody," Shehzad told the court.
The investigative officer, in his statement to the court, said the suspect had been brought to court in search of a FIR registered against sexual assault and the murder of one of the four children. The cases recorded for the other three children were being investigated by a joint investigation team, he explained.
Shehzad's arrest was announced by Punjab Prime Minister Usman Buzdar a day earlier through a detailed press conference revealing the methods used to discover the identity of the suspect.
The prime minister confirmed that the suspect was behind the four cases of sodomy and murder that shook Kasur last month and shed new light on the continued prevalence of child sexual abuse in the country. "The case against him will be carried out in an anti-terrorism court where hearings will be held daily," he said.
Four children, aged 8 to 12, had disappeared since June of this year and the last, Faizan, aged 8, disappeared the night of September 16.
The remains of three of them were found on September 17 in the sand dunes near the Chunian bridge.
Prime Minister Buzdar had taken note of the incident and requested a report from the Punjab police chief.
Meanwhile, protests were held to express concern about the illegality and failure of the police to protect people's lives.
In recent years, Kasur has been shaken by multiple incidents of abuse, rape and murder of children. In January 2018, Zainab Ansari, six, was found dead in a pile of garbage near Shahbaz Khan Road, five days after her disappearance. It was the twelfth incident of this type that occurred within a 10-kilometer radius in Kasur for a period of 12 months. His death had caused protests and outrage throughout the country.
The first suspect, Imran Ali, had been arrested on January 23, 2018 and on June 12 the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against the death sentence, noting that he had admitted to committing similar crimes with eight other minor victims. Ali was subsequently executed in October of last year.
In 2015, the Hussain Khanwala village of Kasur attracted worldwide attention when a child pornography ring was stopped. Hundreds of video clips have emerged showing a gang forcing dozens of younger children to perform sexual acts and film them. The gang also used the videos to blackmail the children's families and extorted millions of cash and jewelry.
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1508578/suspected-killer-of-kasur-minor-boys-remanded-in-police-custody-for-15-days