On the night of December 12, 2011, police raided a madrassa (Islamic seminary) in Karachi and freed dozens of youth and children who were being kept chained at a madrassa. Most of the students are from Peshawar and other areas of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Following is a Geo TV report on the incident:[1]
"Last night [December 12, 2011], police raided a madrassa adjoining the Zikria Mosque in the Afghan locality near Sohrab Goth area [in Karachi] and freed 68 people, including children and boys. According to police, students of the madrassa had been kept chained in a basement.
"The police took individuals into custody; one of them has been identified as Qari Usman, who is the incharge of the madrassa [Qari is the title of a cleric who recites Koran]. The freed children say that their parents had brought them to the madrassa, where they were tortured."
Freed student: "[We told Qari sahab] we have fever. He would lay us down and lash [us] with a belt five or six times."
Freed student: "Much atrocity is committed here... [He] used to beat."
"The freed students have been kept at the police station... Their relatives are coming to pick them up. Their relatives.... said that their children are addicted to drugs and that they themselves had enrolled them at the madrassa."
[1] Geo TV, Pakistan, December 13, 2011
