PESHAWAR; May 21: Police arrested a seminary teacher in Kakshal area on the charges of sexually assaulting his three-year-old pupil late on Friday.

An official of the Yakatoot police station told this correspondent on Saturday that the teacher identified as Qari Mohammad Zaman of Orakzai Agency was arrested on the complaint of one Shahbaz Khan, father of the child, and an FIR had been registered against him under Section 377/12 of Pakistan Penal Code.

“On his return from the seminary to home my son was crying in pain. He could not fully express his feelings, but disclosed that the teacher had subjected him to sexual assault,” the official quoted the complainant as saying.

The official said that the accused had been taken to a hospital for obtaining his medico-legal report and he would probably be produced in a special court on Sunday (today) to get his custody for further investigations.

Initially, the official claimed, the accused had confessed to his crime and said that he had married a year ago and presently residing at the seminary at Kakshal in Qureshabad locality of Peshawar. The medico-legal report, he said, could be obtained till Monday. Mr Shahbaz said that he works as carpenter and wanted his child to learn Quran, but he did not know that the Qari (teacher) would hurt his confidence.

“As the child was screaming in pain I took him to a local doctor, who also confirmed that he had been sexually abused,” he said and demanded exemplary punishment to the accused.

The police official confided to this correspondent that two other people sitting with the teacher at the seminary had also been arrested, but they were later released. —Ali Hazrat Bacha