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2 Child Sex Abusers Jailed for Life Under New Laws in Pakistan


FILE - Pakistani police drive men accused of child abuse to the Lahore High Court in Pakistan, August 11, 2015.
FILE - Pakistani police drive men accused of child abuse to the Lahore High Court in Pakistan, August 11, 2015.

A court in Pakistan sentenced two men to life in prison Monday in a major child sex abuse ring that outraged the country.

The two men in Punjab province were also fined more than $2,800.

They are the first suspects jailed after the Pakistani senate passed a bill for the first time formally outlawing child sex abuse, pornography and trafficking.

Lawmakers acted after officials uncovered a brutally cruel pedophile ring last year in Punjab.

As many as 300 families say members of a gang videotaped themselves sexually abusing children and blackmailed their parents by threatening to release the tapes.

Gang members allegedly threatened to use knives and guns to force the children into sex acts.

Seventeen suspects have been arrested.

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