Police on Friday booked a private school teacher for allegedly beating and torturing a student in Muzaffargarh’s Alipur Tehsil for “not completing her homework.”

According to the first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the complainant said that his 10-year-old daughter Kausar Bibi, a grade three student of Sohail Public School, was “beaten and tortured” by her teacher Muhammad Hussain.

A case was registered under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 355 (Assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour a person, otherwise than on grave provocation) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Saddar Alipur Police Station.

In the FIR, the father stated that when he went to pick her up from school on Friday at around 11am, he saw Hussain pulling the child by her hair and hitting her on the back with a stick.

The FIR said the victim’s father immediately called his relatives to the school, but the teacher was able to flee the scene.

Bibi was moved to District Headquarters Hospital Muzaffargarh for medical treatment.

Muzaffargarh Police Spokesperson Waseem Khan Gopang said District Police Officer Ahmad Nawaz Shah took notice of the incident and issued orders for the immediate arrest of the suspect, adding that raids were being carried out.

Last month, a teacher at a government primary school in Shangla was arrested for torturing and breaking the hand of a fourth-grade student for demanding leave.

It is pertinent to mention that on Monday, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior passed the Islamabad Capital Territory Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill 2022.

Last year on Dec 1, the parliament in its joint sitting had passed the law, but later some legal experts objected to its language, compelling the movers to introduce a new bill.

Senator Walid Iqbal informed the committee that the bill aimed at banning corporal punishment on children by declaring it a crime. The committee unanimously passed the bill after a detailed deliberation.