Daily Times

Lahore police have arrested Mufti Azizur Rehman, who has been accused of sexually abusing his seminary student, from Mianwali on Sunday.

The police have also arrested Mufti Azizur Rehman’s two sons from Lahore and Lakki Marwat. A case has been registered by the Lahore police against Mufti Azizur Rehman, his sons and two unidentified persons. A team of the Lahore Police arrested Mufti Azizur Rehman in a late-night raid in Mianwali.

The 70-year-old religious cleric and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s deputy ameer in Lahore is now in police lock-up after an FIR was lodged against him for sexually assaulting one of his seminary pupils.

“We have been able to arrest this criminal. We will take it as a test case, interrogate him, conduct a scientific professional investigation, prosecute and get him convicted by the court,” the IG Punjab said in a message on Twitter.

He further said that they want their kids protected from these child molesters and keep society safe for their future.

Lahore Police said that Mufti’s student Sabir Shah lodged an FIR in North Cantt Police Station in which he claimed his teacher blackmailed him after he failed in one of his examinations and demanded sexual favours in return.

He said that he had been a student of Jamia Manzoorul Islamia since 2013. “During the exam of Darjah-e-Rabia (grade four), Mufti Aziz, who was the Nigran (caretaker) accused me and another guy of putting someone else in our place for the exam and had me banned from appearing in the Wifaqul Madaris exam for three years.”

He said that he pleaded with Mufti Aziz to reconsider the decision upon which the cleric said he would if the young man engaged with him sexually. “So, out of compulsion, I came into his deceit and became a victim. He also promised me that he would have my ban removed and get me to pass the Wifaqul Madaris exam.”

The man said he was sexually exploited every Friday for three years and blackmailed. He went to the madrassa administration but, according to him, they said this was not possible as the mufti was an old man and a pious person. They said he must be lying, according to the application made to the police.

He started secretly filming to collect evidence which he presented to Wifaqul Madari Nazim-e-Aala Hanif Jalandhary. “When Mufti Aziz came to know about this, he threatened to kill me,” the young man told the police. “A few days ago, when someone uploaded the video on social media, I got scared and went into hiding.”

Aziz had denied the accusation of sexual abuse in a video statement and claimed that he was drugged by his student before he was filmed.

“In fact, the boy gave me sedatives in my tea and after that I was not in my senses,” he had said. “The biggest proof is that my body was not even moving. If I were in my senses, how could I have not known that he was making a video from his phone?”

The cleric had claimed that the videos were a conspiracy to remove him from Jamia Manzoorul Islamia, Lahore.

He was terminated by his madrassa and his party, the JUI-F, suspended his party membership after the videos went viral.