CHAKWAL: A prayer leader accused of raping a 10-year-old girl was arrested in an injured condition after “his pistol went off in his trousers”, Chakwal police said in a statement on Friday.

A police official also confirmed the development to Dawn, saying that when a police team went to arrest the suspect on Thursday, he tried to flee.

“In his attempt to run away, he fell, and a pistol tucked into his waistband went off. As a result, he was injured and subsequently arrested by police,” the official said.

Wanhar police had registered a first information report (FIR) against the prayer leader on July 28 on the complaint of the 10-year-old girl’s father under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the girl’s father told police that his daughters, aged 10 and five, used to go to a mosque in Munara village of tehsil Kallar Kahar for Quran lessons by the prayer leader.

On July 28, he said, his younger daughter returned early after her Quran lesson while his elder one came back crying later.

The complainant said his elder daughter told his wife that the prayer leader sent other children, including her sister, home early but asked her to stay back. She told her mother that the prayer leader asked her to go inside a room, followed her inside the room and raped her, the FIR said.

The complainant also accused the prayer leader of showing his daughter a knife and threatening to kill her if she told anyone about him raping her.