The Gadap Town police superintendent Rao Anwar, while talking toThe Express Tribune, said, “Those recovered are aged between 12 and 50 years and are mainly of Pakhtun ethnicity.” The SP added that those kept in the basement were students who were subjected to torture by the administration of the seminary. “A few drug addicts and mentally challenged persons were also among those who were recovered,” Anwar said.
“It seems that the administration was running a sort of religious school-cum-rehabilitation-centre and were receiving considerable sums of money from parents of those kept in for that purpose,” SP Anwar added.
According to the police, the administrator of the seminary, Mufti Dawood, fled during the raid. However, the police apprehended his subordinate Qari Muhammad Usman along with two watchmen from the site. “Usman is a resident of Battagram district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and arrived in Karachi hardly two months ago. We recovered a bunch of keys from his possession that include those to the basement,” Anwar said.
The recovered persons will be handed over to their parents after investigations and legal formalities are completed.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2011.
COMMENTS (31)
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@Thodla Venkatasubramanyam: i am pashtun from peshawar these sort of thing happening all the time,they are keeping pashtuns in the stone age so we pashtuns can stay divide
50 Children were found being absused, intimidated and chained in a Karachi madarsaa.It is clearly a violation of UN charter that children cannot be chained in schools or in Madarsas, or employed in any manner. To me it seems these madarsaas are supplying / sold children after brainwashing them to terrorist organizations that prevails in Pakistan. United Nations if it is honest in their approach to the well being of the children either US / europeans or other countries, it should take immediate steps to stop all the madarsaas operating in Pakistan, rehabilitate these children to the main stream for hounarable living. America should immediately stop funding Pakistan and force Pakistan to close similar madarsas in the whole of Pakistan.
this is a game has been play by pakistan, arabs iranin and sold out pashtuns,to keep pashtuns children in the stone age,so we pashtuns can keep they border safe,
I was only being sarcastic. Unlawful detention and brain washing for terrorism cannot be supported by anybody. All acts of terrorism must be condemned. Thanks for the comments and take a note. Regards, Mirza
Since when madrassa became a drug rehabilitation center! I thought they are there to produce 'Jihad' cannon fodder only. I hope they were not attending the crash course on 'head chopping' , though this all is not new, there was a BBC documentary on Sepa Sahaba madrassas with similar theme long time ago, we all know how Sepa Sahaba Madrassa factory is producing peace loving, God fearing leaders.
@John: I think you missed the afghan connection to this story. Talking about headlines. How is Terry Jones in the modern world?
Barring Mirza there are saner comments. While appreciating the folks who felt the pain for our nation's plight, it has been conveniently ignored that a number of internees were sent to Afghanistan for Jihad.Amongst the chained internees there were kids below the age of 10 years. Were they also the spoil brats?Let's stop politicizing the issue and examine the matter in its true perspective.Nations who gave priority to education in solid sciences, gained financial clout, while we are holding begging bowl till today.We as a nation have to face the realm. Our budget for Education is minuscule compared to Defense & Govt Spending.We got to set our priorities right and substitute these Madrassas with proper cost-free schooling backed by a technical knowledge.Ignoring this segment can land us into horrendous situation. Time is if essence.
Unnecessary media hype, chaining drug abuse victims and mentally handicapped for treatment is standard procedure even in hospitals.There were a whole lot of normal kids being given education at this institution, only the ones under treatment were chained and the highest fee being charged here was only Rs.1350 which is much less than what hospitals ask for treatments such as these. So before bashing madressas, get to know the facts first.
@Mirza, Its better to face the realities. Express tribune never publishes unauthentic news.
It shows us how irrelevant and boring is the sallybus in so called Madrassa System, where you have to keep people in chains to 'educate' them.
@Mirza: toooooo idealistic
@Mirza: Mirza sahib.. wake up... if there is a problem in our society... we should own it and condemn it... this is how nations come out of the crisis...
If the parents were paying the madrassah whatever to keep the children/adults chained, wont they do it again? better to figure out the motives of abandonment by the relatives/parents and decide each case accordingly. best to send the kids to SOS or eidhi and the adults too, rather than getting them further abused. also the perpetrators of the crime should be severely dealt with, and publicly, to act as a deterrent against further abuse. AND if any militancy type training is involved, then all of them need psychological rehabilitation before being returned to society.
@Mirza, you got anything new to offer? its all getting a bit redundant
@Mirza: No one is against religious muslims .Have guts dont live in a state of self denial it has lead us to this stage.
@Mirza: Dont be idealistic. Being an idealist will only be your loss. Do something about. Salams and have a nice day
According to the children, this was a jihadi madrassa which was going to train taliban and send them to Afghanistan
what's the name of the Madarssah?
We need fact and if indeed it was a Madrasa then those running must be given exemplary punishment. In any case such a behavior should not be condoned or tolerated.
Well done pakistanis!!! Another great piece of news headline to improve your already beautiful image in the international world! Wake up people you're the second largest muslim country in the world!!
@Sohail, Bro , you yourself are saying that they presented themselves as religious seminary to the parents, so how can you say that it was not a Madrassa??
This is not to justify harsh treatments but sometimes human beings are so wrong and wicked in their ways that in order to bring them to the right path, learned people have to bend their finger (ungali tedhi karnee padati hai). Imagine the benefits to the world if even one of them became a good Muslim.
Why police is handing over these kids to their parents? These parents are criminals too. They should be charged and put in the same cell with Qari Sahib.
@Mirza: The feudal land lords of the Bhutto, Zardari clans are free of any guilt of keeping millions of haris under worse conditions of course.
Their situation will never be publicized since the CIA dollars aren't flowing to make their plight known.
@Mirza: This sort of comment really are getting boring now.
Wish I could lock such Muftis and sick parents up with hungry hyenas. They'd really enjoy being with their own kind and get a taste of their own medicine!
Now this wasn't a Madarsah as widely claimed by the media, children were not brought in but their fathers brought them.. Children were mostly drug addicts or not on the 'right path' according to their families.. their families brought them in so they get them corrected... we saw a drug addict who has been to jail now in the rehabilitation center.,... In no way I am justifying this, but just to remove the propaganda that it was a madrassah, it is called one because the name was used to fool parents to believe that their children would learn religious education.. in the name of rehabilitation, they were tortured and misused..
Police should made all out efforts that abducted children should be handed over to their parents/guardians and at the same time the accused should be arrested and prosecuted according to the law of the land.
The law enforcement people should also try to find out if there are any other seminary where children are kept in illegal confinement.
This is a lie to defame the good peaceful religious Muslims. We Pakistani Muslims cannot do that to the other Muslims. It must be a conspiracy with the signature of Zardari, PPP and HH. SC should take action against the real culprits PPP. Mullah/military/judiciary alliance Zindabad.