Madrassa children ‘severely’ tortured

The Express Tribune

Three children, all under the age of five, were ‘severely’ tortured by their teacher after they were caught plucking flowers from their madrassa’s garden. Four-year-old Aasia, five-year-old Aqsa and four-year-old Junaid were beaten with sticks and were forced to lie under the sun with three bricks placed over their chests and legs after their teacher, Qari Asghar, got to know that they had plucked flowers from the garden. The children told The Express Tribune that they were beaten up after the bricks were placed on them. “We were plucking flowers for our female teacher who teaches us in the morning. Qari Asghar had put his leg on my neck and then grabbed my hair and beat me up,” said Aasia. The parents found their children nearly fainting after they were called to the madrassa by some member of the staff. They said that the children were bleeding due to the bricks. Asghar ran away from the madrassa after the incident. However, SHO Gul Muhammad of Bara Meel Police Station said that he was arrested and will be prosecuted according to the law. The parents took their children to the Kabirwala THQ Hospital, where Dr Saima, in the examination report, confirmed that the children were “severely tortured”. The police, on the application of the parents, registered an FIR in 57/2012 under the sections 337 L2 and 357 L2 at the Bara Meel Police Station. Irked by the incident, Aasia’s father Mukhtar Ahmed said that such a “brutal” person does not deserve to teach the Holy Quran.