A prayer leader in Kashmore has beaten a young student for not learning his lesson, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.

Maulvi Irfan at Noor Mustafa Masjid in Mohallah Eidgah flew into a rage on learning that seven-year-old Shahid Lashari has not memorized his lesson. 

The victim boy said he was beaten very hard. His uncle dubbed the Maulvi a barbarian, saying they will hand him over to the police.

In early last month, a madrasa student was hospitalised in Tangwani town of Kandhkot after the prayer leader tortured him for not cleaning a washroom.

The cruel act was committed at Madrasa Noor-ul-Huda as Rafique Ahmed Khoso started beating the boy over his refusal. However, the people present in the mosque, attached to the madrasa, for daily prayers rescued the boy after hearing his cry for help.

Later, the boy was rushed to a local hospital for treatment as his condition worsened due to the inhuman treatment.

It is worth noting that the madrasas, whether big or small, are mostly established at or with the attached mosques. Moreover, prayer leaders manage the affairs of both mosques and madrasas simultaneously.

Kandhkot is city and tehsil located in Kashmore, the northernmost district of Sindh located along the border with Punjab. 

In February this year, a student was tortured to death by his teachers at a seminary in Lahore. The incident occurred at Darul Uloom Rahimia in Ismailpura area where a student identified as 10-year-old Gulfam was tortured by Qari Bilal and Qari Shoaib. As the condition of the boy turned critical, he was rushed to Health Bridge Hospital where he succumbed to severe torture wounds.

The police have taken both Qari Bilal and Shoaib into custody.

Torture on children in madrassas has become a routine, which has claimed many precious lives. At large, all kind of crime against children has been on the rise, from sexual assault to torture in educational institutions – both conventional and religious but the government failed to take stock of the situation and take head-on measures to eradicate the menace.