Child beaten for freeing parrots died due to severe beating

An autopsy of the minor domestic help, killed by her employers for accidentally setting parrots free early last month, has confirmed that the child was assaulted.

The post-mortem report stated that the minor victim had been kicked brutally kicked in her genitals which inflicted serious injuries and eventually caused her death, a police official said.

Zahra Shah, an eight-year-old, had been beaten to death by her employers, including Hasan Siddiqui and his wife Umme Kulsoom, for opening a cage in which they kept five expensive parrots on June 1. Three of them were caught while two of them managed to fly away whose market value was around Rs60,000.

A police official, who is part of the investigation team but was not authorised to talk to the media, told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that the Rawat police received the child’s autopsy report on Wednesday - over a month after her demise - proving that she had been beaten to death.

The police official said that they had also recovered videos from the suspects’ cellphones showing Zahra being beaten. The cellphones containing the videos have been handed over to the Cyber Crime Wing of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for further investigation.

However, the policeman said they are still waiting for the polygraph and DNA test reports from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA). Speaking about its importance, he said that the DNA reports will help ascertain if the minor victim was sexually assaulted as well. He added that the suspects have completed their physical remand and are currently detained at the Adiyala jail on judicial remand.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2020.