Punjab police have arrested former Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam - Fazal (JUI-F) leader and former Jamia Asad ul Farooq cleric Mufti Aziz ur Rehman and his son from Mianwali on Sunday.
Inspector General Punjab Police Inam Ghani took to Twitter to confirm the news of his arrest. In a tweet he said:
"We have been able to arrest this criminal. We will take it as a test case, interrogate him, conduct [the] scientific professional investigation, prosecute and get him convicted by the court. We want our kids protected from these child molesters and keep our society safe for our future."
Rehman and his son were on the run after the former was booked by the Punjab Police on the charges of molesting and intimidating a teenage seminary student. The charges came after a video clip which shows him reportedly molesting a student went viral on social media on Tuesday.
A First Information Report (FIR) was also registered against him at police station North Cantt, Lahore on behalf of S*, the victim and a student at Jamia Manzoor-ul-Islam.
The FIR was registered under sections 377 (unnatural offences) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of Pakistan's Penal Code.
According to the FIR, the complainant had claimed that the 70-year-old cleric blackmailed him after falsely accusing him of cheating in an exam, and forced himself onto the young man.
Furthermore, the student said that he got admission to the Jamia Manzoorul Islamia in 2013. Mufti Aziz asked the victim to have sexual relations with him while threatening to terminate him from seminary. S* said in the FIR that he had been abused by the cleric for three years.
The complainant added that he had informed the administration about the incident but they dismissed his complaint without looking into it.
S* in a video statement had said he is receiving threats from Aziz's sons since he "exposed" the cleric. The victim claims he was chased outside the seminary by a stranger who also hurled threats at him.
Aziz-Ur-Rehman denies charges:
Mufti Aziz-Ur-Rehman in a video statement has admitted to having physical relations with the young student but claims it was consensual. Aziz added that the video is old and is being intentionally used to defame him.
He said the video was a part of a conspiracy against him due to Madrassa politics and claimed that he was given something intoxicating and he was not conscious.
