HARIPUR: Three children, including two siblings, were allegedly assaulted during the last two days in different parts of the Haripur city, the police said here on Sunday.

One of the accused, allegedly a prayer leader, was arrested while the man charged in another FIR was still at large, the police said.

SHO Saddar police station Chaudhry Khalid Khan said father of two siblings complained that his 11-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter learnt Holy Quran from Qari Qamar Zaman, the prayer leader of a mosque in Mohallah Choee Pind Hashim Khan. “The two children informed me on Friday that their teacher, who was also native of the same village, assaulted each of them three to four times during the last few days intermittently,” the complainant told the police.

The accused, according to the complainant, repeated the act on Friday afternoon and took the boy to his sleeping room situated within the premises of the masjid, and assaulted him.

On the complaint of the victims’ father, the Saddar police registered a criminal case against the accused under section 376 of PPC and section 53 of Child Protection Act.

SHO Khalid Khan said the accused had been arrested, who confessed to sexually abusing the two minor siblings. He said the initial medical examination of the victims at Haripur Trauma Centre proved the assault on them. However, the case would base on the final report of the Forensic Science Laboratory, he added.

Meanwhile, in another similar act of child abuse, a teenage boy was allegedly assaulted in the limits of the city police station.

The 16-year-old from Sikandarpur village lodged a complaint with the city police station, stating that he was a student of 9th grade at government high school for boys No 2, 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,” the complainant told the police.

However, the victim disclosed the incident to his brother, who took him to the police station. On the complaint of the victim, the police registered a criminal case under sections 376 PPC and 53 CPA against the accused, who is on the run, the police said.

Published in Dawn, October 21th, 2024