Corporal punishment: Student accuses teacher of thrashing him, demands legal action

During a medical check-up,doctors confirmed the student had been injured.

HARIPUR: A student accused his school teacher of thrashing him despite a ban on corporal punishment. The injured student lodged a complaint against the accused teacher and is seeking legal action.

In response, the accused teacher and his colleagues protested against the alleged victim’s family and decided to boycott classes on Tuesday.

Muhammad Yasir, a resident of Pandak, lodged a complaint with the City police stating his paternal nephew Mohsin Khan, a ninth grader at the Government Centennial Boys High School N o1, came home from school in tears and with a fever. He was also in pain, the report stated.



His face and parts of the body were badly bruised, and when his parents inquired about what had happened, Mohsin told them his class teacher Javed Rauf thrashed him with a bamboo stick “over a minor mistake.”

Mohsin confirmed his ordeal to the City police SHO and told journalists that Rauf, his English language teacher, caught him talking with a couple of class fellows while he was lecturing. On this, the teacher got infuriated and called him [Mohsin] out and starting beating him with a stick, he added.

“When I tried to clarify my position, the teacher continued beating me. My face, arms and back were severely bruised,” Mohsin claimed. Terrified over the Rauf’s attitude, Mohsin refused to go back to school and is demanding legal action.

Rauf refuted the accusation against him and said he did not beat Mohsin. Instead, he claimed the student had a ‘quarrel’ with his class fellow, which resulted in “minor abrasions.”



Following the filing of the complaint, the police referred the case to the hospital where doctors carried out a check-up of the victim, and later confirmed the ‘skin deep injuries and bruises’ sustained by him.

In a move to counter the allegation, Rauf accused Mohsin’s family of attempting to physically assault him during school hours. All teachers protested in support of their colleague and condemned the alleged assault against a fellow teacher. In addition to demanding that legal proceeding against Rauf be quashed, teachers are also pushing for the registration of an FIR against Mohsin’s family.

Haripur Deputy Commissioner Nisar Ahmed has ordered an inquiry into the complaints from both sides, while others are trying to patch up the differences.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2013.