The Sindh government will be filing an appeal against the acquittal of Sarang Shar, a retired high school teacher, who was convicted and sent to jail after a video showing him raping a child went viral on social media.

Khairpur police arrested Sarang Shar on Saturday evening, a day after his acquittal, and shifted him to an undisclosed location.

“Sindh Govt will be filing an appeal as soon as written judgment is issued. So far just a short order acquitting Sarang Shar, clearly shown to be molesting the child in a video, has been announced by the court,” Sindh Chief Minister’s Law Adviser, Murtaza Wahab said in a tweet on Saturday.

On Thursday, April 27, the district and sessions court in Khairpur freed on Thursday Sarang Shar, a retired high school teacher, who was convicted and sent to jail after a video showing him raping a child went viral on social media.

In a hearing on Thursday, Additional and Session Judge IV Samina Mangi instructed the prison administration to free the convict after the parents of three victims pardoned him. He spent two years and nine months behind bars at the central jail in Khairpur.

Two days after the hearing, the Sindh Human Rights Commission announced that their legal team is in Sukkur to investigate the acquittal of Sarang Shar.

In July 2020, Sarang Shar, 63, a retired school teacher from Taarko School of Tehsil Thari Mirwah attempted to rape three students ages, 10, 12, and 15 at his home in the guise of providing them home tuition, according to the cases registered against him.

He blackmailed students after recording their videos.

Three separate cases were registered against Shar on the complaints of the parents of victims under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The families of the students are poor while the Shar community holds considerable influence in the area.

After the news of his acquittal was shared, several people retweeted a still image from the viral video that showed Shar raping a boy. Others shared a sketch based on the same image.

Journalists Sameer Mandhro tweeted, ‘‘He is a retired teacher who was acquitted by the court due to lack of ‘concrete evidence’. While before his arrest in July 2020, videos of him abusing young children went viral. This is how justice is mocked in dear Pakistan.’’

News anchor Dr Nazia Memon wrote, ‘‘So sad and disappointing to see a culprit who was sexually abusing children at a tuition center and making videos that went viral, the teacher of Khairpur, Sarang Shar has been acquitted by the Khairpur court. Utterly shameful.’’