Corporal punishment: Student faints from beating

Police register complaint against madarassa teacher, who they say is at large.

BAHAWALPUR/ FAISALABAD:

A 10-year-old student at a seminary was brutally beaten up by his teacher on Thursday, Tandlianwala police said.

The boy was taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital, where doctors treating him later said that he was out of danger. A case was registered by the police with one of the boy’s relatives as the complainant.

Police said Muhammad Abdullah, a teacher at a seminary in Mumtazabad Colony, beat up Abu Zar Ghafari with a stick for not learning his lesson.

Complainant Muhammad Naveed said that Ghafari was an orphan. He said after his father’s death five years ago, he had enrolled Ghafari at the seminary. On Thursday, Naveed said, he was informed that Ghafari had fainted at the school. He said when he went there, he discovered that his teacher had beaten him up with a stick.



He said some of the boy’s class fellows told him that the teachers slapped him first. He had then dragged him by the hair to a corner and beaten him with a stick until he fainted.

He said he took the boy to the THQ hospital, where doctors treating him said that he had probably fainted from fear. They said there were bruises on his back and legs.

He said while the police had registered his complaint, they were reluctant to arrest Abdullah as an influential group in the area that funded the seminary was protecting him.

Naveed said shortly after he filed the complaint, some men had arrived at his house and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not withdraw the complaint.

The Tandlianwala station house officer said that police were looking for Abdullah. He said a police team had raided his house, but had not found him there. The SHO denied any pressure and said that the matter was being dealt with transparently.

School teacher assaulted

In Bahawalpur, a primary school teacher was beaten up by armed men on school premises. He was rescued by some neighbours when the men chained him to a motorcycle and tried to take him away.

He was taken to a hospital, from where he was discharged a few hours later.

A case has been registered by Abbas Nagar police on the complaint of the teacher’s father, Ghulam Haider.

Haider told police that four men, nominated in the FIR, had entered the school by scaling a wall. He said they were armed and beat his son Muhammad Shahid Imran with sticks. They then dragged him out of the classroom in front of the students and tied him to a motorcycle using chains. He said some residents rushed into the school on hearing the children scream. He said the assailants fled on seeing the people. Imran was taken to a hospital and later taken to his house.

Those nominated in the FIR are Peer Bakhsh, Muhammad Aashiq, Allah Bakhsh and Muhammad Ismaeel. Police said they were looking for them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2013.