KARACHI: Gulshan-e-Maymar police have started the paperwork but haven't done much else against five suspects for torturing and illegally confining at least 68 people, including children, in the basement of their seminary situated in Gadap Town.An FIR (273/11) was lodged against five suspects namely Qari Usman (placed in durance vile), Mufti Daud, Qari Abdullah, Qari Qudratullah and Maulana Fakharuddin under sections 342, 344, 506-B, 337-1/34 as raids for the arrests of absconding suspects were being carried out.
Needless to mention, some 68 people, including 14 children, were recovered from a seminary known as Jamia Masjid Zakaria Kandhelwi Madrasa Arabia situated in Afghan Basti in a raid conducted by the Gulshan-e-Maymar police late Monday night.
Most of those salvaged belonged to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and Punjab whereas a few hailed from Afghanistan with their families living within the city. The people, aged between 12 to 55 years, were either chained up or had torture marks. In a development on Tuesday, their relatives reached the cop shoppe claiming that they had sent them to the seminary on their own accord as they were either drug addicts or involved in criminal activities. Some older men were staying in the seminary on their own will besides children who were refused to be brought up by their parents.
Most of the recovered men blamed the seminary's administration for torturing them. They had been jugged for last several months being subjected to torture and malnutrition.
The men were kept in a 150 square yards basement beneath the seminary spread over 2,000 square yards. A signboard was also placed outside which read: 'Drug addicts are treated here'.
Most of the recovered men said that they saw the sky after a long period. They said they were given scanty rusk in the breakfast besides some insipid food in lunch and dinner and sometimes nothing to eat.
Detained Qari Usman said that he joined the seminary two months ago rebuffing its involvement in any criminal activity. He said the administration charged Rs 3,000 to Rs 15,000 from the guardians in the heads of treatment, food and Islamic studies besides free of cost rehabilitation for some deserving men.