Sahiwal headmistress critically injures minor for ‘using her toilet’

SAHIWAL: A public school headmistress tortured a Class II student for allegedly using her toilet in an emergency.

The incident happened at the Government Girls Middle School in village 2/10-L near Harappa city on Thursday noon.

Iram Shahzadi was so critically injured that she received 10 stitches to her private organs. Dr Zahid confirmed to Dawn over phone that the child’s private organs were wounded. She was admitted to the DHQ Hospital in a critical condition.

The girl’s family claimed when they submitted an application for registration of a case, Harappa police not only allegedly refused to register it, but also discouraged the girl’s father from moving against headmistress Farkhanda Batool.

The parents claimed that the police also refused to issue them a medical docket.

Sources said that on Friday Shahzadi’s parents succeeded in getting a medical docket from Harappa area magistrate Tajammul.

Shahzadi’s mother Sakeena Bibi told Dawn that the medical superintendent of DHQ teaching hospital conducted a medical examination of her daughter that confirmed critical injuries to her private parts. The parents demanded a departmental inquiry from the education chief executive officer and registration of a criminal case against the headmistress.

Iram Shahzadi, 6, is a resident of village 2/10-L. On Thursday morning at school, she wanted to use a toilet and in the urgency she used the headmistress’s toilet as the other washrooms were non-functional. When she came out, the headmistress saw her and started slapping Shahzadi.

Witnesses said the headmistress pushed and shoved the girl, who hit a cement wall and steps and started bleeding from her private parts. On seeing the blood, the headmistress took the girl to her room and locked the school’s main gate.

A witness said that later headmistress Batool took Shahzadi to her cousin’s house in the village and attempted to stop the bleeding. When the girl’s parents found out about the incident after two hours, they took their daughter to a private hospital where doctors examined her and gave her 10 stitches.

Sakeena told Dawn that the headmistress’s family, instead of apologising to them, were pressurising them against reporting the incident to the authorities.

“The headmistress’s relatives threatened us to be silent when we decided to move an application to Harappa police station,” her husband, Riaz, added.

Headmistress Batool did not respond despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2018