Syed Nawaz, a nine-year old boy, was beaten by a teacher at Majlis-e-Dawatul Haq Hadoi branch of Madrasa Zia Ul Uloom, at Islamabad Colony in Kalaburagi on Friday morning.
According to the boy, who was admitted to the District Hospital, he was gagged and beaten in a room by his Arabic teacher for expressing his desire to return home.
“I was missing my mother and home. When I went near the main gate, the teacher accused me of running away from the madarsa and took me to a room and beat be on my back with his fist,” Nawaz told The Hindu at the hospital.
Second of the five siblings, Nawaz was said to disinterested in formal studies. He would regularly skip his classes at an English medium school he had been admitted to and play with other children at a relative’s home. Concerned about his future, Raiza Sultan, his mother, dropped him at the madrasa just a day earlier.
“Since he was continuously skipping classes, I took him to the madarsa on Thursday hoping that he would at least learn Arabic. The very next morning he was beaten up,” Ms. Sultan said. She came to know about the incident when her son returned home by 1 p.m.
“When all others in the madrasa were busy in afternoon prayers, he escaped from there to reach home. I went to the madrasa by 4.30 p.m. and asked the authorities there where my son was. They simply said that he would be playing somewhere. They asked me to come later in the evening when attendance of the students would be taken,” she said.
Upon hearing the news, police personnel visited the boy’s home and hospital and asked the mother to file a complaint. The police said that the mother who was initially ready to lodge a complaint later refused after the community elders persuaded her against the move.
“We cannot force her to lodge a complaint. If she does, we will book a case,” Galeppa, police sub-inspector attached to Roza police station, said.
