Religious teacher held for beating students

Areligious teacher was arrested in Pakistan after footage of him hitting children at a mosque went viral on Twitter.

The video, which was taken by another person who had visited the mosque for prayers, shows a group of frightened boys holding out their palms for the beating. The video shows other boys who had just received the corporal punishment wincing and doubling over in pain.

The man who took the video confronted the religious teacher and demanded that he stop. The irate religious teacher refused, telling the boys’ would-be rescuer to go and focus on his prayers.

The man then approached one of the boys who was in tears, and asked him why he had been beaten, to which the child responded: “I hadn’t come for the past two days.”

The video was shared by other social media users on Friday.

Pakistani Singer Shehzad Roy shared the viral video and wrote: “If this Maulvi [religious teacher] is still out I’ll make sure he is arrested today because I think this is happening in Karachi.”

Sindh Police responded shortly afterwards, saying that they had arrested him.