Torture of student Police asked to take action against school

PESHAWAR, April 25: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Commission (CPWC) has taken notice of the severe beating of a minor student by a teacher at a local religious academy and asked the concerned police station to register the case under relevant provisions of the Child Protection and Welfare Act. The commission also announced on Monday that it would extend psycho-social support to the victim as the boy, Ziaur Rehman, was visibly traumatised after the incident. The accused teacher, Tariq Azam, has been absconding after the occurrence and the private school-cum-religious institution, Iqra Taleem-ul-Quran, has been locked by the management since Friday last. The victim, who is a 5th grade student, is carrying violence marks on his body. The local police have so far not registered the FIR of the incident stating that they had sought legal opinion from the prosecution. The deputy protection officer of the commission, Mohammad Ijaz Khan, informed this correspondent that they had contacted the officials at the concerned Khazana police station and asked them to register the case under sections 33, 34, 36 and 37 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act, 2010. He stated that corporal punishment was prohibited under the said Act and it carried punishment up to six months imprisonment or fine up to Rs50,000 or both. Moreover, he added that section 36 prohibited violence against a child and it was punishable up to three years imprisonment and fine up to Rs100,000. Mr Ijaz stated that they would send letters to the high-ups of the police in this regard. Moreover, he stated that the commission was also in contact with the provincial education ministry so as to ascertain whether the said educational institution was registered with the government or not. The officer stated that a fact finding team sent to the concerned Kashmir Korona area at Haryana village noted that the victim was brutally thrashed by the teacher. "As the said teacher has been missing along with the management of the school, therefore, their version of the motive behind the thrashing of the victim could not be ascertained. However, the family of the boy stated that he was beaten on pretext of not learning daily lessons," the officer informed. —Bureau Report