Pakistan’s Islamic leader sexually assaults 13-year-old student at the seminary, Islamic institutions become a hub for child sexual abuse

Islamic leader M Shahid Rafiq Madni of Tehreek-e-Labbaik (Jalali Group) was arrested for sexually assaulting a minor boy at a seminary. As per the FIR registered by the boy’s father, the 13-year-old boy was a student at Dar-ul-Uloom Ghousia Rizvia.

On 16th September, after Isha prayers, the cleric forced himself on the boy. “He did not let the teenage boy leave the seminary for three days,” the report suggested. The boy’s father has urged the police to arrest the cleric and hold him accountable for his deeds.

Many such cases of child sexual abuse in religious institutions have been reported in Pakistan in recent times. In May 2020, a 15-year-old boy was raped at a mosque in Gujrat city of Punjab province. In December 2019, a cleric Qari Shamsuddin and four others were arrested for abusing a young boy in a madrassa. He was raped over 100 times. In another case, in December 2019, the father of a child registered a case against a local shrine’s cleric for abusing his child. In Peshawar, a cleric was accused of abusing a child in a madrassa. In October 2019, a cleric named Mukhtar Ahmad was arrested for molesting children. The atrocities against Hindus in Pakistan are well documented including many cases of abduction, rape and forced conversion of minor Hindu girls.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik is the organisation responsible for filing hundreds of blasphemy cases including the one against Asia Bibi.