Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has arrested a man accused of making and selling explicit videos of his own young children through secret groups on Telegram, in what officials described as the first case of its kind in the country’s history.
The details were shared by NCCIA Islamabad Additional Director Shoaib Khan at a press conference in the capital, according to Geo News. He said the suspect was taken into custody after an investigation traced the sale of the material to closed Telegram groups, where payments were made in cryptocurrency.
Investigators also uncovered a wider circle built around the circulation of such material, Khan said. The alleged ringleader, who belongs to Skardu, was arrested with the help of international agencies, while raids are continuing to track down other facilitators. Evidence and links were recovered from Islamabad, Multan and South Punjab.
Khan stressed that the identities of children in such cases are never disclosed, and said those behind these crimes will be brought to justice. He described the case as unprecedented in Pakistan’s history.
The official also spoke about other recent cases handled by the agency, including the arrest of four members of a gang that allegedly befriended children on Instagram, lured them with money and sold indecent videos through WhatsApp groups and abroad. The arrests followed an investigation into around 60 videos recovered from a child’s phone.
In another case, a minor girl from Karachi attempted suicide after enduring harassment and blackmail for two to three years. She is being treated in hospital, and the main suspect was traced and arrested from Islamabad within 13 hours. The agency also recently rescued a 13-year-old girl trapped in a dark web network, and has announced plans to use artificial intelligence to track online crimes against children.
The NCCIA was set up on 3 May 2024 to investigate cybercrime in Pakistan, taking over from the Cybercrime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency, and it works with international partners on cases that cross borders.
Khan urged people not to remain silent if they face cybercrime, pointing to the agency’s 24-hour helpline 1799 for complaints, and advised citizens never to share one-time passwords, bank details or personal information with anyone. The case is a reminder of how quickly online exploitation can hide behind closed groups and encrypted payments, and why reporting it early matters more than ever.
