Torture of schoolgirl in Lahore: School suspends 5 students, including victim.

Five schoolgirls, including the victim, were suspended by a private school in Lahore after a video surfaced on social media showing four students punching and kicking their classmate, it emerged on Tuesday.

A video clip of the alleged torture, which surfaced on social media last week, showed the four girls wrestling the victim to the ground by her hair and repeatedly punching her.

Last week, a first information report was registered on the complaint of the victim's father. Subsequently, a Lahore court granted pre-arrest bail to three of the schoolgirls nominated in the police complaint.

The National Commission on Rights of the Child (NCRC) has also taken notice of the incident and directed the School Education Department secretary to submit an inquiry report.

The circular by the Scarsdale International School, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was issued by Headmaster Romuald Delattre on January 20.

It identified the victim as a grade 8 student. The suspects accused of torturing their classmate were identified as students of grade 8,9,10 and 11.

The letter stated that this was the 'first time' such an incident had occurred since the schools was started 25 years ago. It stated that the management and the board of directors had taken a 'serious view of the incident', and had named three senior faculty members to thoroughly investigate it and submit a report within 10 working days.

'Based on their reccomendations/findings, from the investigating effort, disciplinary actions against the concerned students shall be taken. Serious misdemeanors by the concerned students may result in the expulsion of the students from the school, according to the school's regulations,' it said.

In the meantime, the five students involved in the incident are suspended, the letter said.

The FIR

The FIR (first information report) was registered on the complaint of the...