School administration suspended the victim and 4 accused girls in Lahore school violence case

The private school in DHA, Lahore on Tuesday suspended 5 teenage girls including the complainant from school following the violently beating incident inside the school premises.

The school identified the victim as a grade 8 student. The suspects accused of torturing their classmate were identified as students of grade 8,9,10 and 11.

The school circular stated that the management and the board of directors had taken a “serious view of the incident”, and had named three senior faculty members to thoroughly investigate it and submit a report within 10 working days.In the meantime, the five students involved in the incident are suspended, the school stated.

According to the police sources, the school administration was uncooperative with them and did not provide the CCTV footage of the incident to the investigation officer, though statements of four eyewitnesses were recorded.

The Punjab Education Department formed a committee to probe into the matter of seven named suspects in the case including, the principal Bilal, canteen workers Nasir, Hannan Jatoi, Abdul Hannan, Someet, Muhammad Hassan, and Ismail.

On the other hand, the CEO education sent an inquiry report to the district education authority Lahore.

Deputy Commissioner Lahore, Muhammad Ali will decide as per the favours, regarding the cancellation of school’s registration or impose fine.

The incident as per FIR

A video clip of the alleged torture, which surfaced on social media last week, showed the four girls wrestling the victim to the ground by her hair and repeatedly punching her.

The FIR (first information report) was registered on the complaint of the victim’s father Imran Younis, who stated that his daughter was studying at the Scarsdale International School located in BB Block of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). He alleged that one of the four girls involved in the attack was carrying a dagger.

The group of girls dragged ‘A’ on the ground by her hair, sat on her back, and subjected her to inhuman torture, he alleged.

Imran said one of the girls was a boxer who hit his daughter in her face while another kicked her, causing injuries to her face. Another girl tried to strangulate his daughter, he said, adding that the video clip was sufficient evidence to initiate legal action against the attackers.

He said his daughter was traumatised following the attack and the video clip caused further mental torture to him and his family.

He added that his daughter had also recorded a video of her class fellows taking drugs in the school. “Later, she (A) showed me the clip that I shared with the father of that girl (prime suspect),” Imran said, adding that the suspects had been nurturing a grudge against his daughter since then and planned an assault on her.

He further alleged in the FIR that the attackers also snatched a gold chain and a locket from his daughter during the attack.

He said he also approached the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for action against those who uploaded the video clip of the assault on his daughter on social media.