Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Omar on Wednesday said that authorities sealed the madressah in Swat, where a student was killed earlier this week, and returned its other students to their parents.

A young student was allegedly beaten to death by his madressah teachers on Monday evening in Swat’s Chaliyar village, according to the police. He was rushed to the nearest hospital by students and teachers, but doctors declared him dead upon arrival.

Addressing a press conference in his office accompanied by Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Badshah Hazrat Khan, DPO Omar said: “When we came to know of this incident, we also thought to check with the other students studying in the madressah if there was any other case such as this or not. We sent our team to this madressah and when statements were taken from the children, it was found out that some others had been subjected to violence as well.”

Omar said police detained all madressah staff upon receiving this information with nine more taken into custody and a case registered on the police’s complaint under the Child Protection Act.

“Around 160 to 170 students were retrieved and we returned them safely to their families after contacting them and the madressah was sealed.”

He said investigations into any possible sexual assault were under way with samples taken, adding that the relevant section would be added to the first information report (FIR) on any confirmation.

DPO Omar said there were four suspects nominated in the FIR and two were subsequently arrested, with teams formed to trace and arrest the others.

“They will not be able to escape the law. We will arrest them as soon as possible,” he said of the absconding suspects.

He said the police took action immediately upon being alerted of the incident and the case was registered.

Omar said the items used to allegedly beat and bind the student were also recovered.

Meanwhile, KP Chief Khateeb Maulana Tayyab Qureshi strongly condemned the incident in a statement, saying that “the death of a student at the hands of a madressah teacher is the height of brutality.

“The elements involved in the incident should be severely punished. Such so-called reciters and teachers are a stain on the name of madressahs. The public should avoid admitting children to unregistered madressahs.”

He said the condemnation of the incident by the Wifaq-ul-Madaris was a positive development

“We will never allow brutality under the guise of religious education. Islam does not allow us to beat children. A teacher is not allowed to beat, regardless of their field. The government should take retribution from the teacher involved in the beating.”

Talking to Dawn.com, he reiterated his strong condemnation, saying no amount would be enough.

He demanded exemplary punishments for the culprits who were becoming a basis to defame religion and madressahs so that no one ever dared to commit such crimes, especially in regards to students and children.

Qureshi said students were the responsibility of madressahs to be taken care of, adding that such violence and treatment harmed students’ psyche and health. He also hailed the sealing of the madressah and the return of the students to their families.

He also appealed to ulema to ensure that violence and physical beatings did not occur at seminaries, saying that the law and religion did not allow it.

Under the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010 and its 2018 regulations, corporal punishment is a punishable offence, violation of which can result in up to six months of imprisonment or a Rs50,000 fine, or both.

In May this year, the KP Private Schools Regulatory Authority, through a notification, strictly prohibited corporal punishment in all private schools across the province after receiving complaints.

Violations, however, continue to prevail. According to a recent report by the KP Child Protection and Welfare Commission, children across the province were subjected to 33 different forms of abuses, including 14 incidents of corporal punishment.

In April, a seminary teacher in Kasur was arrested for allegedly beating a student with a hot iron for not memorising his lesson at Bangla Kambovan.