Sexual assault: Family asked to back up charge with medical report

" I was threatened with dire consequences if I dared make the issue public," Father.

LAHORE / MULTAN: Kot Addu magistrate Akhtar Ali on Tuesday directed relatives of an eight-year-old girl sexually assaulted allegedly at her seminary to submit a medical report for registration of an FIR in the matter.

The family’s request for registration of an FIR against administration of the seminary was earlier turned down by Daira Deen Panah police. SHO Khalid Bilal told The Tribune that the request was turned down because rape was not established in the medical report issued by Kot Addu rural health centre.

Meanwhile, the girl was operated at Nishter Hospital on Tuesday for wounds suffered in the sexual assault, Dr Kashif Chishti, an assistant professor in pediatrics surgery, told The Tribune. He said the father of the child had initially reported that she was injured while playing at home. However, he said, her examination at the hospital revealed that the child had been raped.

Dr Chishti described the child’s condition as serious.

The child was referred to Nishter Hospital from the doctors at the Kot Addu RHC.

Her father said he had been threatened by influential people in his village with dire consequences if he made the issue public. He alleged that the child was raped at the seminary where was a student. He said some neighbours had spotted the child lying unconscious at the seminary and called him to the scene.

The child was taken to the rural health centre from where doctors referred her to Nishter Hospital.

The seminary has been closed and the administration missing since Monday.

Teacher accused of rape a month ago yet to be located

In another incident in Multan, Alpa police have yet to make any headway in tracking down a seminary teacher accused of sexually assaulting five students who has gone missing.

Hafiz Muhammad Rashid has not been to the seminary in Pul Khadal Chaa Pirwala village ever since a sexual assault case was registered against him on April 4.

SHO Irshad Hussain said medical samples of the teenage girls were sent to a laboratory for chemical examination. He said rape had not been ascertained in an examination at a health centre in the village. He said Muhammad Ilyas and Muhammad Ashraf, brothers of the suspect, had been held of questioning but were released after a couple of days.

The FIR was registered on directives of the provincial Home Secretary, on a complaint by Nusrat Ali, father of one of the girls.

The application stated that the girl was raped by the teacher during the lunch break on March 12. He said she was threatened with death if she ever disclosed the matter, he added.

The Special Branch inquiry into the matter carried out on the Home Secretary’ directive concluded that the suspect had also raped four other students whose parents had earlier been reluctant to take the matter to the police.

The report said the suspect had tried to settle the issue in a panchayat. It said a woman in the neighbourhood, who is also missing since the registration of the FIR, had threatened the families against prosecution.

There were 130 students, including 40 girls, at the seminary.

Muhammad Arshad, a brother of the complainant, said the girls’ families were still getting threats against proceeding with the matter.

Muhammad Ashraf, a brother of the suspect, rejected the allegations as false. He said his brother had been wrongly implicated in the matter to settle another score. He also said the suspect had gone missing in the middle of March, well before the FIR was lodged against him.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2012.