500 children fall victim to porn ring

At least 500 children were sexually abused by a children’s books author recently arrested for his alleged involvement in an international child pornography ring, BBC Bangla reported citing police sources.

In June this year, police arrested children’s book writer, Tipu Kibria, and three of his associates from Dhaka. Police officials said they had been involved in producing child pornography using young boys lured or coerced from slums and other areas.

Police said they were able to identify 13 people in eight countries who had bought the pornographic videos from the arrested persons, and paid for them through Western Union.

After more than two months of investigation, police unearthed the ring led by Tipu Kibria, whose real name is TIM Fakhruzzaman, that lured or coerced at least 500 boys to perform in pornographic films over the past nine years. Most of the victims were street children.

The videos were delivered to customers on the internet. A person connected with the business of selling the pornography was also arrested.  A child victim was rescued at the time of the arrest.

BBC Bangla quoted Additional Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Shah Alam of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as saying the arrestees had been involved in child pornography since 2005 and the number of victims might be as many as five hundred.

The DIG told the BBC that police would seek help from Interpol to identify the foreign suspects.

The police official said they were on the brink of identifying a major international child pornography network.

The police official said one or two new boys became victims of the gang every month.

Police seized a huge number of photographs, videos, film-making equipment, hard disks, documents and other information. They said the evidence suggested the gang had clients in different countries.

Tipu Kibria, in a statement given before the court, confessed to his involvement in child pornography.

Police said charges were being framed against the arrestees.

They said they were investigating whether there were other similar gangs operating in the country.