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Police in the Pakistani city of Karachi have rescued 54 students from the basement of an Islamic seminary, or madrasa, where they said they were kept in chains by clerics, beaten and barely fed.
Police raided the Zakariya madrasa late on Monday on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub. They are investigating whether it had any links to violent militant groups, which often recruit from hardline religious schools.
Most victims had signs of severe torture, and had developed wounds from the chains, police said. The main cleric of the madrasa escaped during the raid. Many of the students – who varied in age from 15 to 45 and were kept 30 to a room – were still in chains while shown on television.
"I was kept in the basement for the past month and was kept in chains. They also tortured me severely during this period. I was beaten with sticks," said a student, Mohi-ud-Din.
Another student who appeared on television from a police station said: "I have been here for 20 days. They hardly fed me anything and would beat me up if I did not learn my lessons properly."
A senior police official, Rao Anwar, said many of those rescued were drug addicts brought to the seminary for treatment. "These people were not taken to the madrasa forcefully. In fact the parents of many of them had themselves got their children admitted there," he said.
"Some of them are drug addicts, and others involved in other crimes, and they were tortured and kept in chains so that they did not run away."
A man who identified himself as Abdullah told local television that he had brought his 35-year-old drug addict brother to the madrasa for rehabilitation.
"The chains are not a problem. They are needed because without them heroin addicts run away," he said.
Thousands of madrasas are spread across Pakistan, which is fighting an insurgency by al-Qaida-linked Taliban militants.
Many people are too poor to afford non-religious schools or feel state institutions are inadequate so they send their children to madrasas, where they memorise the Qur'an, learn Arabic and study the traditions ofIslam.
Many madrasas offer free board and lodging. Some of the more extreme schools churn out fighters and suicide bombers for militant groups such as the Taliban or al-Qaida.
One student, Fayyaz Azeem, said there were no visits by Taliban militants. "They kept us in chains and used to beat us every day with sticks and belts," he said.
Pakistani police rescue 54 students chained up in madrasa basement | World news | The Guardian
Police raided the Zakariya madrasa late on Monday on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub. They are investigating whether it had any links to violent militant groups, which often recruit from hardline religious schools.
Most victims had signs of severe torture, and had developed wounds from the chains, police said. The main cleric of the madrasa escaped during the raid. Many of the students – who varied in age from 15 to 45 and were kept 30 to a room – were still in chains while shown on television.
"I was kept in the basement for the past month and was kept in chains. They also tortured me severely during this period. I was beaten with sticks," said a student, Mohi-ud-Din.
Another student who appeared on television from a police station said: "I have been here for 20 days. They hardly fed me anything and would beat me up if I did not learn my lessons properly."
A senior police official, Rao Anwar, said many of those rescued were drug addicts brought to the seminary for treatment. "These people were not taken to the madrasa forcefully. In fact the parents of many of them had themselves got their children admitted there," he said.
"Some of them are drug addicts, and others involved in other crimes, and they were tortured and kept in chains so that they did not run away."
A man who identified himself as Abdullah told local television that he had brought his 35-year-old drug addict brother to the madrasa for rehabilitation.
"The chains are not a problem. They are needed because without them heroin addicts run away," he said.
Thousands of madrasas are spread across Pakistan, which is fighting an insurgency by al-Qaida-linked Taliban militants.
Many people are too poor to afford non-religious schools or feel state institutions are inadequate so they send their children to madrasas, where they memorise the Qur'an, learn Arabic and study the traditions ofIslam.
Many madrasas offer free board and lodging. Some of the more extreme schools churn out fighters and suicide bombers for militant groups such as the Taliban or al-Qaida.
One student, Fayyaz Azeem, said there were no visits by Taliban militants. "They kept us in chains and used to beat us every day with sticks and belts," he said.
Pakistani police rescue 54 students chained up in madrasa basement | World news | The Guardian
