Girl ‘tortured for reporting harassment

KARACHI:

A woman has filed a complaint at a local court, stating that she was being threatened into silence over her daughter’s harassment.

A woman submitted a complaint to the additional district and sessions court for East district on Friday, stating that her nine-year-old daughter had been enrolled at a neighbourhood madrassa near her house in Patel Para for the last six months.

Last week, the girl told the mother that her ustani’s (teacher) brother was sexually harassing her. The complaint said that the ustani assured her that they would investigate the issue.

However, the ustani and her sister tortured the girl for ‘reporting the harassment’, it stated. The woman said when she was the torture marks on her child, she confronted the ustani the next day. The teacher, her sister and the brother warned her against reporting the incident.

The woman’s brother, Adnan, even threatened to get the family arrested in a fake robbery case if the matter was disclosed, said the complaint. The woman said that she went to the Soldier Bazar police station to file a complaint but the ‘officer on duty said that my daughter had stolen half a million rupees from the madrassa’. She said that she had no other avenue but to approach the court. The woman works as a domestic help while her husband in security guard.