Watchman held for ‘sexually assaulting’ schoolgirl in Khanewal

Sources say accused enjoys 'political backing' and victim’s father was pressured to stay mum on the incident

KHANEWAL:

A school watchman was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a student of class nine in Punjab's Khanewal district, police said.

Victim's father Ramzan, who is also a Hafiz-e-Qur'an, told police that he got late in picking up his daughter from the school by five minutes and was told by the suspect, identified as Ayub, that the girl had already left for home.

Ramzan said that when he returned home, his daughter was not there. He immediately went back to school where he claimed he saw the watchman sexually assaulting his daughter, adding that the accused however managed to flee on seeing him.

Read more: Minor boy ‘raped by private school’s lower staff’ in Karachi

Sources told The Express Tribune that Ayub enjoys political backing and the principal of the school and influential people of the area pressured Ramzan to remain tightlipped over the incident.

School principal Nasreen said that the accused was sacked from his job following the tragic incident.

Meanwhile, Punjab IG Rao Sardar Ali Khan, taking notice of the incident, has directed the District Police Officer (DPO) Khanewal to supervise the case himself. Later, the Kabirwala police station registered the case against the culprit and arrested the accused.

Also read: School principal rapes nine-year-old student

In another shocking incident in August, a teenager allegedly raped a four-year-old boy on the premises of a private school in Karachi's North Nazimabad.

According to the FIR lodged on the complaint of the minor’s father, teenager Sameer, whose father Afsar works as the gatekeeper of the school, raped four-year-old Z* when the child went inside the school to retrieve his tennis ball.

The complainant, who is a rickshaw driver, said that they live near the school and his minor son was playing outside with other children when his tennis ball went inside the school.

On August 29, the complainant said his wife called him to say the minor was crying relentlessly. He rushed home to find the child distressed and after a while Z* told them that the watchman’s son had molested him when he entered the school premises to fetch the ball. The complainant accused Sameer of raping his minor boy.