Pakistan: Seminary teacher held for assaulting minor boy

The incident took place in Pakistan's Haripur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the Station house Officer of Sera-i-Saleh police station, Sidiq Shah who confirmed the arrest of the accused Qari Uzair and said that the preliminary medical examination report confirmed the offence, the Dawn reported.

SHO said, "A widow of Kholiyan Bala village told that she had brought her nephew, 15, to live with her three years ago. She said she had admitted him to a madrassah in Mohallah Parao to learn Quran, where a seminary teacher molested him."

As explained by the widow, SHO said, "On Friday morning, she said. her nephew got back from madrassah sad and refused to go back there in the afternoon despite repeated calls from the seminary teacher. The woman said when she asked why he was not going back to the seminary, the boy disclosed that his seminary teacher, namely Qari Uzair, beat him up over a minor mistake and forced him to go to his bedroom inside the seminary."

"The woman said the teacher locked his room from inside and raped the boy. She said the man had raped him several times during the last six months and threatened him with consequences if he disclosed the incident to anyone," the Dawn quoted SHO as saying.

The complainant said that the suspect had attempted to strike a compromise with the victim's family through a jirga, but when the family declined, he fled the madrassah.

The police registered a case against the suspect under section 377 of PPC and 53 of the Child Protection Act and arrested him, the Dawn reported.

As per the media reports, Pakistan's human rights records have seemingly touched a new low with several media reports and global bodies reflecting the dire situation for women, minorities, children, and media persons.

A Lahore-based NGO "Sahil" stated that minors are frequent targets of assault in Punjab.It revealed that 3,852 children were made targets of molestation and sexual assault across Punjab in 2021 and at least 40 of the victims were murdered afterwards.

Over July, and 108 children were sexually abused as violence against children continued to plague society as Punjab reported 42 cases, followed by 32 cases in KP and 21 in Sindh, according to Dawn.

At least 82 children were kidnapped across Pakistan, 30 of them from Punjab, 27 from KP, 13 from Sindh, eight from Islamabad and four from Balochistan.

Continuing on the tangent of physical violence, at least 22 children were murdered in July - 10 were murdered in Punjab while Sindh and KP reported five and three cases, respectively. Balochistan and Islamabad reported two cases each.

And while the government has tried to portray itself as a champion of women's rights, the bare truth of Pakistan remains that successive governments' apathetic attitude toward women's rights has encouraged a culture where anti-women crimes are committed with impunity.

Thousands of women are murdered, kidnapped, and assaulted each year. The conviction rates are extremely low. Even the government reports point towards a grim situation. However, even more, disturbing is the fact that only 4 per cent of these rape cases have resulted in a conviction. (ANI)