PAN, July 23, 2012

Cleric held for raping schoolgirl

By Mohammad Barat

A prayer leader was detained on the charge of sexually abusing a schoolgirl during the holy month of Ramazan in northern Samangan province, the Ministry of Interior said.

A statement from the ministry said the detainee from Dara-i-Sauf district was a prayer leader at a mosque in Aibak, the provincial capital. He was arrested on Sunday night.

Maulvi Syed Ahmad, the detainee, was held after residents caught him with a 10-year-old girl, who is currently under treatment at a hospital.

The first police district head, Lt. Col. Sultan Shah Amir, said the cleric had entered the girl’s house in the provincial capital, in the guise of a teacher and raped her on Saturday evening.

Samangan crime branch chief, Lt. Col. Ghulam Mohammad Zalmai, said the cleric, during preliminary investigations, had confessed to raping the minor.

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