Lahore March 8 (TNS): The nation is struggling to come out of the trauma caused by the gruesome rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab in Kasur and six-year-old Asma in Mardan, another horrific incident of sexual assault of children at a seminary in Nawab Town Lahore has surfaced. An FIA and other documents available with TNS show that the victim-students of the seminary — Jamea Alfaisal in Nawab Town — have come out to break the silence about their sexual assault allegedly at the hands of two teachers — Qari Imran Yousuf and co-accused Qari Nauman.
The whole episode surfaced a few days back when the two accused allegedly attempted to sexually rape Mateen, a student of the seminary, who slipped from their grasp before reporting the matter to his family.
The reported incident later egged on and encouraged Nadeem — the father of another seminary student, Abu Bakar, who was also allegedly sexually assaulted — to lodge an FIR (228/18) against Qari Nauman and his co-accused, with the Nawab Town police.
According to sources, the police briefly arrested Qari Nauman before letting him go on the assurance that he will show up as and when police asked for.
The complainant, Naddem, has alleged that Qari Nauman and his co-accused by misusing their authority sexually raped his son for over two years.
According to sources, over 150 students, who kept a mum unless Abu Bakar reported the matter to his father, have been sexually assaulted at the seminary in the two years at the hands of the two accused and their co-accused.
According to the victims and sources the alleged rapists would first sexually assault the children in a room, film the whole act and later make the victims’ swear on the holy book not to report the matter to anyone, threatening them that in case they dared so, the debauched videos would be uploaded to the internet.
Interestingly, the local police are treating the case in a highly casual and informal way, as according to ASP Ishtiaq, they have been waiting for the victim children to show up for the DNA test, but the seminary administration was reluctant to allow them for the procedure. The police officer also said that the Lahore forensic lab has asked them to send them the DNA test reports in April as they were overloaded with work.
The police officer said that the incident was a-year-old but it has surfaced now after Nadeem got the FIR lodged against the suspects.
According to the sources, the seminary had around 300 students, but most of them including those who were sexually assaulted had been withdrawn by their parents after the episode has surfaced.
According to the sources, the parents of the victim students did not approach the police or any other forum, despite knowing about the episode, for ‘honour’ and loss of respect in the society.
