LAHORE: A Muslim cleric who has led anti-blasphemy rallies in Pakistan has been charged with sexually abusing a student at a religious school, police said on Thursday.
Police said charges were filed against Aziz-ur-Rehman after cellphone videos purporting to show the cleric forcing himself on the student went viral on social media.
The case has caused a stir in Pakistan, a mainly Muslim country, and outrage on social media, with many calling for a strict punishment for the cleric.
Rehman denied the accusation of sexual abuse in a video statement issued on social media, saying that he was drugged before the filming of the alleged abuse. He said this was part of a plot to throw him out of the seminary, the Jamia Manzoor-ul-Islamia.
Rehman, who is in his 60s and is a member of a prominent religious political party, has worked as a custodian of the seminary for several years.
The seminary said the cleric has been expelled from his position, and Wafaq-ul-Madaris, the body that oversees the religious schools system, said it has stripped him off his title, mufti, which means a religious scholar.
A police spokesperson said police could not locate the cleric when they visited the seminary after the student filed the sexual abuse complaint.
The student, who police said appeared to be in his early 20s, said in his complaint that he has given several video and audio recordings to help police investigate, adding he had gone into hiding because he had received death threats.
The police said the student had told them that the cleric had been abusing him for several years. He said he started filming the abuse after he got sick of it and sent the video clips of the abuse to the head of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris.
It was not clear how the video clips began circulating on social media.
Rehman has often been seen in photos and videos of anti-blasphemy rallies held in recent months to denounce publication of cartoons in France depicting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Over 2.2 million children attend religious seminaries in Pakistan. Sexual abuse cases are often hushed up, although some parents have recently been coming forward to file complaints.
A nongovernment organization called Sahil that works to stop child abuse reported 2,960 cases of child sex abuse in 2020 throughout the country, not just in seminaries.
Pakistani cleric charged with sexual abuse at religious school
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Pakistani cleric charged with sexual abuse at religious school
- The 60-something cleric has been expelled from his position at the seminary and stripped off his title of 'mufti'
- Police could not locate the cleric when they visited the religious school after the student filed the sexual abuse complaint
Pakistan summons Afghan envoy, seeks ‘decisive action’ against militants after killing of four soldiers
- Militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a military camp in North Waziristan, killing soldiers and injuring civilians
- Pakistan issues a demarche and tells Kabul it reserves the right to respond to militant attacks launched from Afghan territory
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan summoned Afghanistan’s deputy head of mission on Friday and demanded “decisive action” against banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants after four Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on a military camp in the country’s northwest, the foreign office said.
According to the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the attack took place in North Waziristan district bordering Afghanistan when militants attempted to breach the camp’s perimeter but were repelled by troops, before ramming an explosives-laden vehicle into the outer wall.
The blast caused the wall to collapse and damaged nearby civilian infrastructure, including a mosque, it added.
ISPR said all four attackers were engaged by troops and killed, but four soldiers also lost their lives in the exchange, while 15 local residents, including women and children, were injured.
Officials in Islamabad have repeatedly accused Afghanistan of sheltering and facilitating TTP militants, who Pakistan says are backed by India, and whom it refers to as “khwarij,” a term from early Islamic history used to describe an extremist sect that rebelled against authority. Officials in Kabul and New Delhi deny the allegations.
“Pakistan condemns, in the strongest possible terms, today’s terrorist attack carried out by Khwarij belonging to Kharji Gul Bahadur Group on a Pakistan Military camp in North Waziristan District, which resulted in the martyrdom of four Pakistani soldiers,” the foreign office said in a statement. “To convey our strong demarche, the Afghan Deputy Head of Mission was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
It said the ministry expressed concern over the “continued support and facilitation” provided by Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to the TTP, an umbrella network of armed factions, which it said had emboldened militants to carry out attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces.
“Pakistan has demanded a full investigation and decisive action against the perpetrators and facilitators of the terrorist attacks launched against Pakistan from Afghan soil,” the statement added. “The Afghan Taliban regime has been urged to take immediate, concrete and verifiable measures against all terror groups operating from its territory, including their leadership, and deny the continued use of Afghan soil for terrorism against Pakistan.”
The foreign office said the Afghan government had been informed that Pakistan “reserves the right to defend its sovereignty and protect its citizens” and would take all necessary measures to respond to attacks originating from Afghan territory.
Pakistan has faced a surge in militant violence along its western border since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent months, with the two sides witnessing deadly border clashes in October that killed dozens of people. While Qatar later mediated an uneasy truce and talks were held in Istanbul, negotiations failed to reach an agreement on how to address militancy.
The foreign office reiterated in its statement militants continued to enjoy a “permissive environment” in Afghanistan, adding that Kabul was not fulfilling its international commitments by allowing its territory to be used for attacks on a neighboring country.
