LAHORE: A case has been registered against JUIF cleric Mufti Aziz ur Rehman, his sons, and two other unidentified men after a video of the cleric sexually assaulting a student went viral on social media.
The case has been registered at the North Cantt police station on the complaint of a victim under Section 377 (unnatural offences) and Section 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
According to the first information report (FIR) registered on June 17, the victim said that he got admission to the Jamia Manzoorul Islamia in 2013.
He said that during the exams, Mufti Rehman had accused him and another student of cheating by getting someone else to sit for the exams.
“Over this, I was also banned from giving exams at the Wafaqul Madaris for three years,” he said in the complaint.
The victim added that he pleaded to Mufti Rehman, but the latter was unmoved. But Mufti Rehman said that he might be able to think of something if I engaged in sexual activities and “make him happy”, the victim said, adding that he had no choice but to be subjected to sexual assault.
“Mufti Rehman claimed that the ban would be removed and that he would also pass me in the exams. But despite a passage of three years, during which I was assaulted every Friday, he did nothing and started to blackmail me more,” he said.
The victim said he complained to the madrassah’s administration but they refused to believe him as Mufti Rehman was an “elder and a pious man” and instead accused him of giving a false statement.
He said this was when he began recording the abuse and showed it to Wafaqul Madaris al Arabia Nazim. “After this Mufti Rehman started threatening me with dire consequences as well as my life,” he said.
“If justice is not done, I will commit suicide,” the victim said in a video message.
Meanwhile, JUIF Lahore’s secretary-general also issued a notice stating that after the video, the party had suspended the membership of Mufti Rehman and that it would remain revoked till the investigation concludes.
Rehman, meanwhile, said the video was two-and-a-half years old, and that the student was being “used against” him.
“I declare on oath that I did not do such an act in my consciousness. I was given something intoxicating and I was not conscious,” he claimed.
