Dozens of young women from a religious school in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, have broken into an alleged brothel and kidnapped the owner.
The women, from the nearby Jamia Hafsa madrassa, burst in late on Tuesday, demanding the premises be shut down.
The women say they have a right to end immoral activity under Islamic law.
The BBC’s Navdip Dhariwal in Islamabad says it is the first time such bold Taleban-style activity seen elsewhere in Pakistan has occurred in the city.
The Jamia Hafsa school has been at the centre of controversy in recent months.
In February, armed students prevented the authorities from demolishing an illegally constructed mosque and occupied a nearby children’s library.
They have also demanded that local video owners close their stores.
‘Not mistreated’
Correspondents say prostitution is widespread in Pakistan, even though it is illegal.
The women who led Tuesday night’s raid near the city centre included teachers and students incensed, the school says, by reports the house was being used for immoral purposes.
They [police] have arrested our respected, veiled teachers for a corrupt woman
They were later joined by male colleagues from the men’s section of the madrassa.
When the alleged brothel’s owner refused to shut the building, the raiding party forcibly shut it themselves and took the woman, her daughter and daughter-in-law back to the madrassa where they are still being held.
Initially the police were reluctant to step in to rescue the woman, but later registered a case and arrested two female teachers of the school.
But students then kidnapped two policemen from a nearby patrol. They too are being held in the madrassa and were allowed to speak to reporters.
“They have not mistreated us, they have served us tea and allowed us to keep our mobile phones,” one of them, constable Hamad Raza said, the AFP news agency reports.
“We are told that negotiations are under way and we hope the matter will be over soon,” he said.
School officials also say that two other teachers have been missing since early on Wednesday morning and that they believe they were kidnapped by intelligence agencies.
Their whereabouts is unclear.
