Three teachers of a madrasa in Gazipur have been arrested for allegedly beating two students and burning them with a hot iron.

The arrested are Mawlana Shoyeb Hossain, 26, director of Al-Madrasatu Darut Taqwa madrasa in Charmuhuri village of Mymensingh's Dhobaura upazila; Habibur Rahman, 26, of Trishal upazila; and Md Shahin, 19, of Sherpur's Sreebardi upazila.

The victims' fathers filed separate cases with Gacha Police Station, said Golam Rabbani, officer-in-charge (OC) of the police station.

Shoyeb was arrested on Friday and sent to court yesterday in one of the two cases. Habibur and Shahin arrested yesterday in the other case will be sent to court today, the OC said.

Police did not seek remand for any of the three, as the arrests followed verification and scrutiny of the allegations, he added.

According to case statements, the ordeal began on the afternoon of September 9, when both boys' trousers accidentally came off while they were playing on the madrasa grounds. Shoyeb allegedly stripped one boy naked, beat him with a bamboo stick and burned him with a heated piece of iron.

The other boy was allegedly confined to a room, gagged with adhesive tape, and had his hands and legs tied with rope before Shoyeb stripped and beat him with a bamboo stick and burned him with hot iron.

Habibur and Shahin allegedly burned the boy's thighs and buttocks with a hot iron ladle as well.

The father of one of the boys discovered the abuse on September 11, a day after his son returned home unable to walk or sit properly. The boy initially said he had a boil on his buttock, but when his father tried to force medicine onto it, he found burn injuries.

The second boy's father went to the madrasa on the night of September 11 looking for his son and was allegedly told the boy had been sent to another branch. He later got to know from other students that his son had been admitted to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital in a critical condition, and rushed there to find him undergoing treatment.