ISTANBUL — Pakistani police reluctantly detained a Muslim cleric last week after a Christian university student savagely tortured inside an Islamic madrasseh (seminary) died of his injuries.
Maulvi Ghulam Rasool was put under detention at a Toba Tek Singh police station at midday on May 2, about 10 hours after 19-year-old Javed Anjum died in a Faisalabad hospital. Rasool has been identified as a prayer leader and watchman at the Jamia Hassan Bin Murtaza Madrasseh, where Anjum was tortured for five days last month. In testimony videotaped by his family as he lay on his deathbed, the third-year student in commerce at Quetta’s Government College said he was seized by people from the madrasseh when he stopped there to get a drink of water. They pressured the young man to convert to Islam. When Anjum resisted, his captors broke his right arm and fingers, pulled out some of his fingernails and severely beat him. The injuries caused Anjum’s death from kidney failure, despite repeated dialysis treatments.
Judge Qamar Zaman Khoker ordered Rasool kept under custody for another two days to give police time to recover further evidence and arrest two more suspects in the crime.
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