Out of the frying pan: Seven seminary students transferred to Edhi Home
Two dozen students rescued from a seminary and rehabilitation centre near Sohrab Goth were released by the police. Many were given into the custody of their families, while seven were transferred to Edhi Home in the area on Wednesday.
According to Edhi officials, the Gulshan-e-Maymar police station brought seven men to them for rehabilitation, claiming that they were drug addicts. They said that the men will be checked by their doctors to verify if they were actually drug addicts and decide the future course of treatment. The officials said that the police bring people to them very often. Those brought to the centre are as young as 18 to 35 years old. Two of the men, Hidayatullah and Wali, were taken away from the centre by their families. “This is a hospital, not a jail,” said an official. The families are free to visit them and if they want to take the men with them then it is their choice. “We do not turn anyone away as Abdul Sattar Edhi asks us to take everyone in and register their names,” he added.
The men who are still admitted at the Edhi centre include Zahid, Naik Mohammad, Ahmed Khan, Mohiuddin and Khalid Ahmed.
Seminary administrator remanded to police custody
Qari Usman, administrator of a local seminary where 45 people were kept in chains, was remanded to the police custody by a local magistrate here on Wednesday.
Gulshan-e-Maymar police who produced the bearded, strongly built administrator before the Judicial Magistrate, West, Ashfaq Ali Nizamani, requested the physical remand of the accused for three days. Interrogation is continuing and police is looking for other accused in the case who could only be arrested with the help of Qari Usman, the remand request said. JM granted the request and ordered the accused into police custody for another three days. Qari Usman was taken into custody on late Monday night after police raided the seminary and recovered 45 people who were kept there in most inhuman conditions.
After the proceedings were over, Qari Usman told media that he was hired by Mufti Dawood only two months back. He denied allegations of torture or that the children were trained for Jihad.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2011.
COMMENTS (5)
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why dont govt do some thing about it they have money for mercedese cars but not peoples shame on these govt peoples.
this is what happens when your government doesn't provide basic education for everyone for decades. when there is a vacuum like this, where there is no other option, thats when this stuff can exist, and unfortunately can take such ugly and shameful forms.
Well thats surely good to hear, i hope everything works out for those seminary students and they live a full and happy life ahead, shame we have only a few of such places like edhi home in this country...the government really needs to look into this
wait wait wait .... what i heard today that the basement area was dedicated to the Drug rehabilitation services. These children were drug addict, thieves and parents wanted them to be cured. Who knows if news channels has diverted us again from truth ...
Incidents like these are nothing but another blot on the already tarnished image of the country. Media and people all over the world are expressing their disgust over the entire episode. This nonsense must be checked with an iron fist. These images only soldify the world's view of the Pakistani madrassas i.e that they are breeding more extremists and terrorists. Like most of the police raids on drug and mafia cartels, even the person in charge of this "madrassah' managed to escape from the scene and could have been tipped by somene within the police. It would be a shame if the culprits are set free for "lack of evidence". Time to tighten screws on these sham schools, where student often endure all kinds of menta, physical abuse, torture and humiliation.