MUZAFFARABAD: Police in the Jhelum Valley district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) arrested a mosque imam (prayer leader) and Quran teacher in the early hours of December 28 on charges of raping a nine-year-old girl.
Station House Officer (SHO) Hattian Bala Manzar Hussain Chughtai told Dawn that at around 1am, women from the nearby village of Butt Khaitar, which requires travelling part of the way on foot, called the police and asked them to arrest the local mosque’s imam and Quran teacher, whom they had confined inside his room after he allegedly raped a girl.
According to the SHO, a police team reached the spot at around 2am. However, when the door of the imam’s residential room was opened, it emerged that he had escaped by breaking the bathroom ventilator. After an extensive search, police arrested him around 4am and shifted him to the police station.
The SHO said the victim used to attend Quran lessons along with other children at the madressah. However, on Saturday afternoon, after classes had ended, the accused, a resident of Kotli Sattian in Rawalpindi district, called the child into his room on the pretext of cleaning, tore her clothes and subjected her to sexual assault.
When the girl returned home in torn clothes and in a semi-conscious condition, she narrated the incident to her mother and said the accused had threatened to kill her if she disclosed the matter to anyone.
Upon hearing this, the child’s mother and other women went to the mosque, confined the accused inside the room and informed the police.
The SHO said although the girl’s age was being reported as nine years, she appeared to be even younger.
He said a case had been registered against the accused under Section 377-A of the Azad Penal Code (APC) and that an investigation had been initiated. The accused would be produced before a magistrate on Monday for physical remand, he added.
Section 377 of APC provides that rape or any unnatural offence committed against a minor, defined as a person of either sex below 18 years of age, is punishable with death, life imprisonment, or castration along with imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine ranging from Rs2 million to Rs5 million.
The law also allows for surgical or permanent chemical castration of the convict, as determined by an authorised surgeon.
Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2025.
