A suspect in the attempted rape of a six-year-old boy at the Islamabad Convent School was remanded in police custody for three days.

On June 9, a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged over the incident at Margalla police station on the complaint of the victim's father. Police registered the case under Sections 377 (unnatural offences) and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The complainant said the victim had arrived home from school in a distressed and fearful condition. Upon questioning, the child confessed to his mother that a man in the school had molested him.

The applicant said he filed an application with the school administration, requesting for an investigation into the matter.

The complainant said the matter had not been heeded to for three days. On June 8, after protesting at the school, and apprising Rescue 15 officials, the administration produced the suspect in their presence and handed him to the police, saying that their investigation had determined him as the accused. He requested the authorities to initiate an investigation against the accused.

Speaking to Dawn.com via telephone, the child's mother claimed that her son was taken by a domestic staff member, Waheed, to a toilet and abused over a period of one month.

The woman claimed that Waheed attempted to throttle and rape her child on June 4 which backfired when the schoolbells rang.

She said the minor had come home in a distraught state, and was bleeding after the ordeal. She claimed that a doctor she had visited had told her that an attempt had been made to rape him.

The mother also maintained that the school administration did not immediately address the matter when she approached them last week and instead told her to visit on Monday, June 8. During a meeting with the school's principal on the said date, she said her son was questioned and shown a series of photographs from which he identified the accused.

The victim's mother accused the school management of "shielding the accused".

A handful of angry parents, demanding answers from the administration over what they called their inaction, had subsequently protested with her at the school premises.

The child's uniform was given for examination to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Hospital. According to the report prepared by PIMS, "no bruises, no marks, no scratches" were found upon examination. The medico-legal officer advised a DNA test.

However, the mother alleged that the school administration's delaying tactics had weakened the medical evidence, and also accused Pims doctors of "being under pressure".

She claimed that police had said that an FIR had been lodged the same day (June 8) whereas the copy of the FIR received by her later, and which is also available with Dawn.com, showed the date of registration as June 9, a day after the issuance of the medical report.

A report published in The Nation said that the administration of the school could not be contacted for comments but an official statement displayed on the notice board of the school reads:

“A complaint against our employee was received from the parents of one of the students wherein serious and heinous allegations were levelled against him. Considering the gravity of the allegations the administration of Convent has opted to render the complaint to the concerned police station. Service of the employee had been suspended from the school."

The suspect had appeared before a judicial magistrate for the first time yesterday, when he was remanded in police custody for three days.

— With additional reporting from Munawwar Azeem in Islamabad.