Charges of sheltering alleged child molester: Mufti Kifayatullah secures pre-arrest bail

MANSEHRA: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader, Mufti Kifayatullah, on Monday secured pre-arrest bail in a case instituted against him for allegedly sheltering a cleric accused of sexually assaulting a seminary student.

The police had booked him on the charges of harbouring Qari Shamsudeen, who had allegedly sexually assaulted a 10 years-old student of his seminary on December 24, last year. “I was in Karachi when the Mansehra police booked me under the trumped-up charges of harbouring a cleric. Then I got a transit bail from Lahore High Court’s ’ Rawalpindi Circuit Bench on Feb 3,” Mufti Kifayatullah told reporters after submitting his bail papers to the Station House Officer of the Pulrah Police Station.

The JUI-F leader said that he was innocent and had never harboured the cleric accused of a sexual assault. “Such fabricated cases could lead to agitation against the government as I would make each and everything public when I am free from litigation,” he said. The Mansehra police had made raids following registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Mufti Kifaytullah last week but he had obtained a transit bail from the LHC Rawalpindi bench. The police had lodged the FIR against Mufti Kifayatullah under Sections 225/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

DPO Sadiq Baloch had told the media that the accused Qari Shamsudeen during interrogation by the police had said that he wanted to surrender to police but Mufti Kifayatullah had asked him not to do so. The JUI-F’s provincial executive council had last month suspended Mufti Kifayatullah as the party’s district amir and set up a three members committee to probe the matter.

SHO removed

A station house officer (SHO) in Oghi tehsil was removed after people protested against a robbers group active in the area. The residents of Shergar, Galli Badral, Kharar Mera, Khun and other villages alleged the robbers were robbing houses in the area. “People are afraid of the robbers’ gang, which has been robbing houses for the last three weeks but police have miserably failed to arrest the criminals,” a local resident told the rally. DPO Sadiq Baloch said the new SHO has been deputed to improve law and order in the area.