LAHORE:
Victims were tortured for ‘eating things from the refrigerator’
Two minor domestic workers were brutally beaten up in Lahore's defense area on Tuesday, resulting in 11-year-old Kamran succumbing to his injuries while his seven-year-old brother Rizwan was reported seriously injured.
Dawn newspaper Reports According to police investigating the case of Kamran, a 11-year-old domestic worker, and his injured 7-year-old brother Rizwan, the boy’s body was found to have deep marks of sharp instruments.
Two minors from Karachi worked for a year in the house of a citizen named Nasrullah.
Police said the two children were tortured by the employer's family and were taken to a local hospital only after their condition deteriorated. Law enforcement was subsequently contacted by hospital staff who called after noticing the seriousness of their condition.
Nasrullah, a resident of Lahore’s Defense Phase 3, who was employing the children, received a phone call from a private hospital informing him that he had found the body of a minor domestic worker and a body, a police official said. Injured children have been found.
Nasrullah, his wife Shabana and son Mahmood were detained by the police on allegations of torture, while his other son Abul Hassan and daughter-in-law Hina managed to escape and are currently being hunted by the police.
The police also confirmed that Kamran's body has been sent for post-mortem.
According to the statement given by the accused to the police, the minors were tortured for allegedly "eating things from the fridge".
Taking cognizance of the incident, Chairperson of the Child Protection Authority, Sara Ahmed, directed the concerned staff to contact the family of the two brothers and asked the police to take strict legal action against the accused.
In early June, International Labor Organization (ILO) data from many countries indicated an increasing trend of child labor in the post-pandemic period due to worsening economic conditions.
The global pandemic has also raised the child labor graph in Pakistan. The subsequent lockdowns and closings of businesses caused a great deal of job loss, forcing families to put children into work.
According to Sahil, a local NGO working for children's rights, more than 1,489 minors were reported to have been tortured in the first six months of 2020 alone. Of these, over 53 percent were girls and 47 percent were boys.
Additionally, according to a 2014 United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report, Pakistan is among the 10 countries with the highest number of homicide victims among children and youth under 19, with nearly 3,000 in 2012.
In an earlier statement, speaking to The Express Tribune Bureau Chief Sarah Ahmed, she said that her department has noticed that the Central Punjab region is the most notorious for reported cases of violence against children.
According to the chairman, the reason could be that the region has more awareness about the presence of the office and the helpline compared to other districts of Punjab.
“There are cases in other districts as well, but they often go unreported. It is often the child's own relatives or family friends who are involved in the crime, preventing reporting and punishment. The Office of Child Protection is currently handling dozens of such cases across the province. We are trying to ensure that no such culprit is spared and punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Ahmed stated.
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