Pakistan: Muslim Cleric Accused of Torture Arrested |
| Jan 31 2006 |
| Postings >> Pakistan |
A Muslim cleric accused of torturing a Christian teenager to death to make him convert to Islam has been arrested -- almost 21 months after the boy's murder.
Police apprehended Umar Hayat on charges that he and two other members of a madrassa (or Islamic seminary) in the Punjab had inflicted fatal injuries on Javed Anjum over five days in 2004.
7x7 reported on January 3 that a second suspect, prayer leader Ghulam Rasool, had been rearrested in November after the Supreme Court revoked his bail. A third suspect Mohammed
Tayyab, a teacher at the madrassa, was freed on bail in December 2004.
Compass reports that Muslim clerics have been pressing for Hayat's release by visiting the police station where he is detained and putting pressure on officers in charge of the case.
The judge in the ongoing court case brought by the dead boy's family has now ordered police protection for Anjum's father, Pervez Masih, and Masih's lawyer, Khalil Tahir Sindhu. They had appealed for Judge Javed Iqbal Warraich to intervene after receiving death threats from madrassa members.
Sindhu has reported that as many as 40 clerics and students from the seminary have gathered outside the courthouse on repeated occasions.
Nineteen-year-old Javed Anjum was allegedly kidnapped as he stopped to drink water from the seminary's pump. After his torture ordeal, he was handed over to police as a 'thief'. He died of his injuries in hospital in Faisalabad in May 2004.
Compass reports that the madrassa is alleged to have ties with an outlawed fundamentalist group called Sipah-e-Sahaba, one of five extremist groups banned by President Musharraf in 2002.
- Thank God that the trial judge has taken steps to protect Pervez Masih and his lawyer, despite considerable pressure from Islamic fundamentalists.
- Pray for President Musharraf as he wrestles with the question of how to subdue extremist elements in some madrassas. Pray that he will take decisive steps to stamp out radicalism.
