Three minors assaulted in separate incidents in Haripur

Three minors, including two siblings, have reportedly been assaulted during the last two days in Haripur, reports Dawn.

Police have said that one accused, allegedly a prayer leader, was arrested while the man charged in the other FIR is still at large.

The police told Dawn that the father of the siblings complained that his 11-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter learnt the Holy Quran from Qari Qamar Zaman, the prayer leader accused of assaulting them.

“The two children informed me on Friday that their teacher, who is also a native of the same village, assaulted each of them three to four times during the last few days intermittently,” the complainant stated in the FIR.

The prayer leader serves in a mosque in Mohallah Choee Pind Hashim Khan.

The FIR states that the suspect repeated the act on Friday afternoon, took the minor boy to his sleeping room situated within the premises of the mosque, and assaulted him.

A case was registered under section 376 of PPC and section 53 of the Child Protection Act.

The police confirmed that Qari Qamar Zaman has confessed to sexually abusing the two children. The initial medical examination of the victims at Haripur Trauma Centre proved the claims of assault.

However, the case will proceed based on the final report of the Forensic Science Laboratory.

In a similar incident, a gang of criminals allegedly abducted a school-going teenager and subjected him to sexual assault.

The 16-year-old boy, identified as Luqman Shah, lodged a complaint with the police, stating that he was a student in 9th grade at a government school in Haripur.

“On Friday when I was on way to my home after school time a boy from the same village offered me a ride, but instead of taking me to the village he took me to the house of one Gustasib alias Usama Kohistani in Mohallah Rasheed Abad and disappeared. After some time Gustasib forcibly assaulted me at gunpoint and warned me of dire consequences if I shared the ordeal with my parents,” he told the police.

The victim’s family alleged that the suspects have support from the police.

Express Tribune reported that local police have allegedly started supporting the suspect because he is in cohorts with the police.

The teenager was abducted at gunpoint by a person named Taseem Ali and taken to the place of Gastasab who sexually assaulted him.

The local police registered a case against these suspects, but the Investigation Officer (IO) and his fellow Moharrar provided relief to the accused party.

Gastasab has been charged under section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The other two suspects who abducted the victim and brought him back after the assault were not included in the FIR.

Express Tribune reports that the police has a history of giving these criminals a room of relief in previous instances as well.

The gang kidnaps innocent school and college students and threatens them. Meanwhile, their motorcycles bear police number plates.

Waqar Malik, the maternal uncle of the victim, alleged that Gustasab’s uncle is posted as the Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) at the City police station while relatives of other gang members are also posted on various posts in the local police.

Meanwhile, the people of Haripur have demanded that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General, the Hazara division Deputy Inspector General and the Haripur Deputy Police Officer should immediately take notice of this matter.