Narowal Police have arrested a leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik (Jalali Group) for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy at a seminary.
According to the FIR registered by the father of the boy, the minor was a student of Dar-ul-Uloom Ghousia Rizvia. "On Sept 16, the cleric forced himself on the boy after the Isha prayers. He did not let the teenage boy leave the seminary for three days."
The FIR urged the police to detain the cleric and hold him accountable for his actions.
In May this year, a minor was raped at a mosque in Gujrat city of Punjab during the 10-day-long religious isolation, Aitekaaf observed in the last Ashra of Ramzan. The boy is reported to be of 15 years of age.
The year 2019 saw an increasing number of child abuse cases in the country, from the recent Mansehra rape case to the horrifying case of the Rawalpindi cleric who hung a child upside down and beat him.
Mansehra – December 2019
A cleric, Qari Shamsuddin, was arrested along with four others for the abuse of a young boy in a madrassa. According to reports, the boy was raped over 100 times and was even physically tortured by the assailants. The child had bruises all over his body and was even bleeding from his eyes. The child is currently in a critical condition in a local hospital getting treatment.
Muzaffargarh – December 2019
The father of a child registered a case against a cleric of a local shrine. The child came back crying from the shrine after which the father went to register an FIR with the police under section 377 and 53 of the Penal Code.
Peshawar – December 2019
A cleric accused of abusing a child in a madrassa has been acquitted by the court for the lack of evidence. The defense said that the prosecution could not produce enough evidence through medical reports and through mobile location data. They went on to say that the family falsely accused them of molesting their child because of some other dispute.
Lahore – October 2019
Cleric Mukhtar Ahmed was arrested by the police on charges of molesting children.
The cleric used to go to children’s homes to teach them the Quran but was caught red-handed by the parents of a child while he was attempting to molest them. The incident took place in the Sanda area of Lahore.
The secrecy and shame around sexual abuse mean that numbers are hard to come by, but Associated Press reported in 2017 that a tally of cases reported in newspapers over the past 10 years of sexual abuse by maulvis, or clerics and other religious officials, came to 359.
According to Sahil’s 2018 annual report, the boys aged between 6-10 years and 11-15 years are most exposed to child sexual abuse as compared to girls. The majority of these boys belong to the underprivileged strata of society and are studying in at least 30,000 registered madrassas across Pakistan. More than 2 million children are enrolled in these madrassas.
The mentioned facts are just about the registered madrassas, there are thousands of other religious seminaries that are the hub of child sexual abuse and not registered with the state and operate without any sort of scrutiny and most of the rape and sexual abuse incidents are said to happen in these seminaries.
According to the FIR registered by the father of the boy, the minor was a student of Dar-ul-Uloom Ghousia Rizvia. "On Sept 16, the cleric forced himself on the boy after the Isha prayers. He did not let the teenage boy leave the seminary for three days."
The FIR urged the police to detain the cleric and hold him accountable for his actions.
In May this year, a minor was raped at a mosque in Gujrat city of Punjab during the 10-day-long religious isolation, Aitekaaf observed in the last Ashra of Ramzan. The boy is reported to be of 15 years of age.
Rapes in seminaries
The year 2019 saw an increasing number of child abuse cases in the country, from the recent Mansehra rape case to the horrifying case of the Rawalpindi cleric who hung a child upside down and beat him.
Mansehra – December 2019
A cleric, Qari Shamsuddin, was arrested along with four others for the abuse of a young boy in a madrassa. According to reports, the boy was raped over 100 times and was even physically tortured by the assailants. The child had bruises all over his body and was even bleeding from his eyes. The child is currently in a critical condition in a local hospital getting treatment.
Muzaffargarh – December 2019
The father of a child registered a case against a cleric of a local shrine. The child came back crying from the shrine after which the father went to register an FIR with the police under section 377 and 53 of the Penal Code.
Peshawar – December 2019
A cleric accused of abusing a child in a madrassa has been acquitted by the court for the lack of evidence. The defense said that the prosecution could not produce enough evidence through medical reports and through mobile location data. They went on to say that the family falsely accused them of molesting their child because of some other dispute.
Lahore – October 2019
Cleric Mukhtar Ahmed was arrested by the police on charges of molesting children.
The cleric used to go to children’s homes to teach them the Quran but was caught red-handed by the parents of a child while he was attempting to molest them. The incident took place in the Sanda area of Lahore.
Shame around sexual abuse
The secrecy and shame around sexual abuse mean that numbers are hard to come by, but Associated Press reported in 2017 that a tally of cases reported in newspapers over the past 10 years of sexual abuse by maulvis, or clerics and other religious officials, came to 359.
According to Sahil’s 2018 annual report, the boys aged between 6-10 years and 11-15 years are most exposed to child sexual abuse as compared to girls. The majority of these boys belong to the underprivileged strata of society and are studying in at least 30,000 registered madrassas across Pakistan. More than 2 million children are enrolled in these madrassas.
The mentioned facts are just about the registered madrassas, there are thousands of other religious seminaries that are the hub of child sexual abuse and not registered with the state and operate without any sort of scrutiny and most of the rape and sexual abuse incidents are said to happen in these seminaries.