Prayer leader held on charges of molesting two minors

HARIPUR: The police claimed to have arrested a prayer leader for allegedly molesting two minor siblings in a remote village in the limits of Saddar Police station, police and hospital sources said on Sunday.

SHO Saddar Police Station Ch Khalid Khan quoted Munsif Khan, a resident of Muhallah Choee Pind Hashim Khan, as saying that his 11-year-old son and 10-year- old daughter were learning the Holy Quran at a mosque.

On Friday afternoon, he said his minor son came home weeping and disclosed to her mother that prayer leader of the mosque Qari Qamar Zaman, also a resident of the same locality, molested him sexually while taking him to his sleeping room constructed within the premises of the mosque. The victim told his parents that the accused had molested him thrice in the past during the last about a month and forced him to remain silent.

The complainant told the police that when his son was sharing his ordeal their 10-year-old daughter, who was also studying in the same mosque with the same Qari, also started crying and disclosed that she was also molested three to four times in the past.

The police have registered a criminal case under sections 376 PPC and 53 CPA against the accused and arrested him. The SHO said the accused confessed his crime during an interrogation. Hospital sources and police said that the preliminary medical examination of the victims had proved the charges but the fate of the case would be based on the final FSL report.Police officials said that the accused would be produced before the court of judicial magistrate for physical remand today (Monday).