A four-year-old girl was brutally raped by a cleric on her first day at a seminary in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab, police said today.
The girl was admitted to a hospital in Multan district and doctors described her condition as critical. Police said the cleric had been arrested.
The girl's father, a resident of Nawan Shehr, said in an FIR that he had dropped his daughter off at Shaheedanwala madrassa in his neighbourhood.
More than 70 children from five nearby villages were enrolled at the seminary. He said it was his daughter's first day at the madrassa and the chief cleric had asked him to drop her at his office.
The father was told the cleric would introduce her to other children.
He said when he went to pick up his daughter at noon, he was told that she was in the cleric's office. But the office was locked and the cleric missing.
The father said he broke into the room and found his child lying unconscious, a media report said.
She was taken to the district headquarters hospital, where doctors treating her said her condition was critical. Doctors later performed a surgery on her.
Tahira Parveen, a doctor at the hospital, told The Express Tribune that the girl's medico-legal examination confirmed rape.
District police chief Sadiq Ali Dogar said a police team arrested the cleric from another seminary where he was hiding. The cleric was shifted to an undisclosed location because of threats of violence from the girl's neighbours.
Dogar said two other clerics from the madrassa had reportedly gone missing after the incident.
Residents of the area staged a protest and announced a boycott of all seminaries in the region.
