A survivor of the Nigerian “torture house” raided by police has described being there as “living in hellfire”.
“If you are praying they will beat you. If you are studying they will beat you,” Isa Ibrahim, 29, told the BBC.
Nearly 500 men and boys were rescued from the building in Kaduna, which was being used as an Islamic school and correctional facility.
The police said it was a place of human slavery, with many detainees found in chains.
Some of the victims had been tortured and sexually abused, the authorities say.
The BBC’s Ishaq Khalid, who visited the school in northern Nigeria, says there are concerns that similar abuse may be occurring in other such institutions.
Many families in this mainly Muslim part of the country can’t afford to send their children to school and those that can often enrol them in poorly regulated Koranic schools like this one, he says.
Seven people, including some teachers, have been arrested. The government says it will investigate other schools.
Mr Ibrahim said he was sent there two weeks ago by his family, apparently to “correct his behaviour”.
He said he had tried to escape the day before the police arrived.
He described being chained up to an old generator and also being subjected to a particularly cruel punishment, known as “Tarkila”, where his hands were tied up and he was left hanging from the ceiling.
