Female seminary students raided an alleged brothel here and took three women and a six-month-old baby hostage, sparking a tense stand-off with the police and raising concerns about the “Talibanisation” of the country.Following the raid on Tuesday night, police arrested two teachers of the Jamia Hafsa girls’ seminary. Stick-wielding students of Jamia Fareedia then detained two policemen and two police vehicles inside the Lal Masjid compound. The two sides later agreed to release the teachers and policemen, but the three women and baby were still held captive. The female students vowed not to release them “until they renounce prostitution”. The district administration said the students had picked up the mother, sister, wife and baby of a government employee from his home.
The students also demanded the release of Khalid Khwaja, a former ISI official, besides five allegedly missing students of the seminary. The district administration said they would be released within 15 days, if they were in the custody of security agencies.
Earlier, Jamia Fareedia head Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi set a 4pm deadline for the release of the teachers, failing which the students would launch a “jihad”. He said the girl students had been forced to take action against the “brothel” because police had refused to. He said they would take action against 22 other brothels in the city.