Daily Times

Multan: A cleric at a religious seminary in Qadir Pur Raan, in Multan district, on Tuesday beat up an eight-year-old girl for leaving his classroom without obtaining prior permission, and hung her up from a tree. She has been paralysed waist down.

According to the Qadir Pur Raan Police, the girl had stepped outside the classroom apparently to drink water however, she had not asked Qari Abdul Haq, a cleric at the Madrassah Ameer Muawiya, permission to do so. When she returned, Qari Haq brutally beat her up and then hung her up from a tree in the seminary’s yard.

Her father Muhammad Jameel, a resident of Bangal Kalaranwala, said he had received a call from the madrassah’s administration, asking him to take his daughter back home because she was unwell. “When I arrived at the madrassah to pick her up, I found her unconscious and covered in signs of torture on her face, arms, neck and most parts of her body,” he said.

Jameel took his daughter to a hospital where she regained consciousness after three hours, he said. She then told them how Qari Haq had beaten her up and hanged her with a rope from a tree. She was paralysed waist-down and doctors referred her for further treatment at Nishtar Hospital in Multan.

Several parents in the area, who send their children to the same seminary, shared that their children often told horror stories about the violent corporal punishment that was the norm at the seminary where Qari Haq taught. Many parents said their children had been ‘disciplined’ with iron rods that left marks on their children’s bodies. “Abdul Haq broke the ankle of my five-year-old son by beating with an iron rod,” shared Abdul Qayyum, a parent.

Police said they had registered a case against Qari Haq at the Qadir Pur Raan police station on a complaint filed by the girl’s father. Police said the cleric had confessed to beating up the girl, and was in their custody.

Published in Daily Times, August 1^st 2018.