LAHORE: The Gulshan-i-Ravi police on Thursday arrested a teacher of a private school chain after he allegedly subjected a 10th class student to brutal torture who succumbed to his injuries on the spot.

The deceased boy was identified as Husnain Bilal, a resident of C Block of Iqbal Town, studying in American Lycetuff School’s Gulshan-i-Ravi branch.

Initial police inquiries stated that the schoolteacher, Kamran, tortured the boy for not bringing a book to the class.

The deceased boy’s parents, however, said in the FIR that the branch head Shahid Chughtai had been pestering their son for delaying the school fee.

Bilal’s father alleged the delayed fee was one of the reasons which led to the “murder” of his son by the schoolteacher.

Iqbal Town police Operations wing SP retired Capt Mohammad Ajmal said, quoting initial inquiries, the suspect Kamran, allegedly tortured the boy in the classroom in the presence of his class fellows who confirmed the incident as eyewitnesses.

He said the schoolteacher dragged the boy by his hair, beat him up with fists and kicks and then hit his head on a wall which probably caused fatal injuries.

The boy fainted because of the torture and died on the spot, he said.

The SP said the school administration later informed the parents by phone about the sudden death of the boy.

He said the parents fainted when they came to know about their son’s sudden death in the school.

He said a murder case had been registered against the suspect on the complaint of boy’s father, Mohammad Bilal.

To a question, Mr Ajmal said as soon as the matter was brought into police’s notice, a team of the expert officials was dispatched to the school which arrested the suspect and shifted the body to the city morgue for the postmortem examination.

The SP said the cause of the death would be determined in the light of the postmortem report.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2019