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KARACHI: Authorities in Karachi said on Saturday they had confirmed sexual violence against at least three of four minor girls examined after the arrest of a man accused of abusing nearly 100 children over nine years.

The case surfaced earlier this week when one of the alleged victims stole a USB drive from the suspect and took it to a shop to copy a movie. The shopkeeper found hundreds of videos of child abuse on the device and alerted police.

Shabbir Ahmed, a juice vendor originally from Abbottabad, was arrested on Thursday, and investigators said they had recovered more than 400 clips showing assaults on over 100 girls aged between five and 12, some targeted repeatedly over several years.

“Today, four victim girls, one aged seven, two aged ten and one aged 12, were brought in for examination,” Karachi police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed told Arab News. “Findings in three of them are suggestive of sexual violence, and medicolegal documentation has been completed.”

Police said on Friday Ahmed began abusing children in 2016, luring them with small amounts of money and assaulting them inside his shuttered shop in the city’s Qayyumabad neighborhood.

A diary recovered from the suspect contained names and records of more than 85 victims, noting their ethnicity. The most recent assault is believed to have taken place on Sept. 4.

The suspect has now been charged under Section 376(3) of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment for raping a minor. A judicial magistrate has granted police five-day remand for interrogation.

At least five families have lodged formal complaints so far, and more are expected as medical examinations continue, police said.

Child sexual abuse remains widespread in Pakistan. Sahil, a local NGO, recorded 3,364 incidents in 2024, while the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) documented 5,398 cases between 2019 and 2023.

One of the country’s most notorious cases emerged in Kasur, Punjab province, where between 2006 and 2015 hundreds of videos of mostly male children being abused were circulated illegally, sparking nationwide outrage.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Egypt on Saturday condemned Israeli airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar’s capital of Doha, the Pakistani foreign ministry said, with the two sides also discussing modalities for an upcoming Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Doha.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack in Doha on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing United States-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict.

The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge, while Pakistan on Friday pledged its support to Qatar for the defense of its sovereignty.

On Saturday, Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar spoke with his Egyptian counterpart Dr. Badr Abdelatty about the recent developments in the Middle East as well as the OIC foreign ministers’ meeting in Doha.

“Both leaders strongly condemned the Israeli unprovoked illegal strikes on Doha, and discussed the modalities and details of the forthcoming OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Doha, scheduled for Sunday, 14 September,” the Pakistani foreign office said after their conversation.

The development comes a day after the OIC, which is currently chaired by Turkiye, urged the UN Security Council to “take firm measures” against Israel following its airstrike in Doha.

Delivering a statement on behalf of the OIC, Turkiye’s UN envoy Ahmet Yildiz condemned “in the strongest terms this despicable and unwarranted attack against the State of Qatar and in flagrant violation of its territorial sovereignty and national security.”

“There is no doubt that this dastardly action constitutes a blatant violation of the norms of international law and certainly the Charter of the United Nations, much as it represents an overt threat to both the security of the Middle East region and indeed international peace and security,” Yildiz said.

On Saturday, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said an emergency Arab-Islamic Summit in Doha will discuss a draft resolution on Israel’s attack against the Gulf state, according to the Qatar News Agency (QNA).

“The summit will discuss a draft resolution on the Israeli attack on the State of Qatar, submitted by the preparatory meeting of Arab and Islamic foreign ministers, which will be held tomorrow Sunday,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari told QNA. 

Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.

Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 2023 has killed over 64,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, while internally displacing almost all Gaza’s population, and setting off a starvation crisis. Multiple rights experts and scholars say Israel’s military assault on Gaza amounts to genocide.