Lessons in fear: the unfinished fight against corporal punishment

Lessons in fear: the unfinished fight against corporal punishment

Last month, a 12-year-old madrasah student in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), died after what police and prosecutors allege was hours of torture by his teachers for missing class. Within days, eleven staff from the unregistered seminary were arrested; a Khwazakhela magistrate granted police custody. A parallel case emerged from Swabi where a cleric was detained for torturing a six-year-old for not memorising his lesson. The Swat boy’s father says…