PESHAWAR: Six remanded in abuse case

Published December 6, 2004

PESHAWAR, Dec 5: Six former employees of the Government Higher Secondary School No. 3 for Boys were remanded in police custody for two days on Sunday.

The accused, arrested after their pre-arrest bail petition in a case of sexual abuse of students was dismissed by a court on Saturday, were produced before the magistrate-on-duty.

The accused were brought to the district courts under tight security. Due to an attack on newsmen on Saturday by supporters of the accused, police had deployed a large contingent to avert any untoward incident.

The arrested employees of the school are three teachers, Himayatullah, Abdul Qayyum and Mubarak Ahmad, two clerks, Shahnawaz and Mohammad Humayun, and watch man Abdul Baseer. Three former headmasters of the school, Syed Hussain Shah, Haji Abdur Rasheed and Gul Nawaz, were granted pre-arrest bail by the court on Saturday.

The FIR against the nine was registered at the Kabuli Police Station on October 23 following a judicial inquiry by an additional district and sessions judge, Jamal Khan. Abuse of students in the school, it has been alleged, had been going on for more than two decades.

The FIR was registered under Sections 377, 409, 420, 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Meanwhile, an assistant sub-inspector of the East Cantt Police Station, Mohammad Anwer, has been suspended for negligence. He was reportedly present in the sessions court when newsmen were attacked by supporters of the accused.