Pakistani cleric charged with sexual abuse at religious school

A MUSLIM cleric in Pakistan has been accused of sexually assaulting a student at a religious school.

Charges were filed on Thursday (17) against Aziz-ur-Rehman after cell phone videos purporting to show the cleric forcing himself on the student went viral on social media, a police spokesperson said.

The case has caused a stir in Pakistan, and outrage on social media, with many calling for strict punishment for the cleric.

Rehman denied the accusation of sexual abuse in a video statement issued on social media, claiming he was drugged before the filming of the alleged abuse. He blamed a plot to oust him from the seminary, the Jamia Manzoor-ul-Islamia.

Rehman, who is in his 60s and is a member of a prominent religious political party, has worked as a custodian of the seminary for several years.

The seminary said the cleric has been expelled from his position. The Wafaq-ul-Madaris, which oversees the religious school system, said it stripped the cleric of his title, mufti, which means a religious scholar.

Police said, “We could not locate the cleric when they visited the seminary after the student filed the sexual abuse complaint.”

The student, who appeared to be in his early 20s, said he provided several video and audio recordings to help the police investigate and added that he went into hiding because of death threats.

He also told the police the cleric had been abusing him for several years.

It was not clear how the student's video clips (which he started filming and sent to the head of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris) began circulating in social media.

Rehman has often been seen in photos and videos of anti-blasphemy rallies held in recent months to denounce the publication of cartoons in France depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

More than 2.2 million children attend religious seminaries in Pakistan. Sexual abuse cases are often hushed up, although some parents have recently been coming forward to file complaints.

A non-government organisation, Sahil, that works to stop child abuse, reported 2,960 cases of child sex abuse in 2020 throughout the country, not just in seminaries.