After several botched attempts, the Lahore police arrested Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman, booked for molesting a seminary student, early on Sunday from Mianwali.
The cleric had been on the run after being booked on sexual assault charges. The charges came after the assault survivor released a footage of Mufti Aziz assaulting him.
On June 16, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the 70-year-old on the survivor’s complaint.
Mufti Aziz, also the Lahore vice ameer of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) at the time, had threatened to kill the survivor.
Investigation police is reported to have arrested the cleric's son Ateeq-ur-Rehman from Kahna and Altaf-ur-Rehman from Laki Marwat, while raids are underway to nab his third son Lateef-ur-Rehman and friend Abdullah.
A test case
Speaking to the media, Inspector General (IG) Punjab said, "We have been able to arrest this criminal. We will take it as a test case, interrogate him, conduct scientific professional investigation, prosecute and get him convicted by the court."
The IG added, "We want our kids protected from these child molesters and keep our society safe for our future."
Read Meesha Shafi, Rabia Butt call out seminary rapes
The survivor's statement
The survivor maintained in the FIR that, “I was admitted into the madrassa in 2013 and had been attending it since. He blamed me for making another student take my exam due to which I was banned from giving exams with the Wafaqul Madrassa for three years.”
Shah further stated in his FIR that, “Mufti Aziz promised passing me in exams in exchange for keeping immoral relations with me.”
The complainant stated that the cleric and his sons – Altaf, Atique, Lateef - and three other individuals have been threatening to murder him for releasing the video.
A video message was also leaked with the footage by the teary-eyed survivor, in which he claims that: “My attacker’s sons have threatened to kill me for exposing him [Mufti Aziz]”.
In distress, the victim shared that he is in hiding, adding that, “It is better I die” out of fear of retribution in the recording.
The video spread shock-waves on Pakistani Twitter as netizens not only called for immediate action to be taken against Aziz but also clear out pedophiles in religious seminaries across the country.
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Very good Pak police. At such a senior age this man Azizur Rahman does not have the brains to be involved in such a shameful and scandalous matter Shame him publicly in the newspapers and TV and radio. Adding insult to injury Fazlur Rahman the JUIF chief failed to condemn the act. Is he not afraid of God Almighty From today I will not address him as mufti. Salams
We as a nation have to put an end to all this. This fake moulvi should get a death sentence if we really want to put an end to this .