Pak teacher held for torturing students in Punjab province
Jul 03, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 3 : A teacher has been arrested for torturing students in Pakistan's Punjab provinces, media reported on Sunday.
The incident took place in the Chowk Azam area of Layyah district on Saturday, Dawn newspaper reported.
Police said accused Muhammad Arif Sohail beat two students (10 years old) with PVC pipes for not preparing their lessons. The punishment left scars on their backs and legs.
A case was registered against the teacher on the complaint of Khurshid Khan, the father of one of the students.
District Police Officer (DPO) Nida Umer Chattha said Chowk Azam police had arrested the accused while students were sent to a hospital for medical examination and treatment.
The rampant prevalence of child abuse in Pakistan has become a major cause of concern as reports show that at least 2,960 cases of child abuse have been registered in the country in 2020.
According to a news piece published in Islam Khabar, out of 2,960 cases of child abuse, as many as 1,510 girls and 1,450 boys were sexually exploited in Pakistan in 2020.
Citing a non-governmental organisation Sahil's annual report titled "Cruel Numbers" on October 12, the Islam Khabar reported that as many as eight children were abused every day in Pakistan in one form or the other.
These include instances of abductions, sodomy, gang sodomy, rape, gang rape, and cases of those children who were murdered after being sexually assaulted. It is to be noted that in around 50 per cent of the reported cases, the abuser was known to the victim.
Pakistan's Punjab province recorded the highest number with 1,707 cases, followed by Sindh (861), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (215), Islamabad (102), and Balochistan (53). There has been a four per cent increase in cases of child abuse from 2,846 cases in 2019.
In 2014, a documentary titled "Pakistan's Hidden Shame" shocked the world for its
brutal narration of the gravity of child abuse, through the lens of Peshawar, Islam Khabar had reported.
The documentary estimates that nine out of ten children are victims of this sort of pedophilia in Peshawar and one in ten victims is usually killed by the perpetrator, out of fear and shame.
Pakistan requires a complete overhaul of its laws and policing methods to combat child abuse, Islam Khabar reported.
