Boy shot in August still under treatment

"We had to leave our hometown out of shame and I had to quit my job to take care of my teenage brother who suffered a bullet injury while resisting a sexual assault," said a man from Muzaffargarh district at a hospital in the provincial capital.

Shoaib Ahmad, the brother of the 15-year-old boy who was shot while resisting the assault in Jatoi area in August, told The Express Tribune that he had been undergoing treatment at various hospitals since being injured on August 30. Initially he was admitted to Nishter Hospital Multan for over two months. Last week, he was shifted to Lahore and is currently undergoing treatment in Mayo Hospital.

He said his brother's urological system had been affected by the injury. "It is extremely painful for him, but it is more painful for us to see him pass through this ordeal," he said. "What we went through after the incident ripped apart the foundations of our poor family. The physical pain is nothing as compared to that," he added. "We had been living in Jatoi for generations, but after the incident it became difficult for us to face the local people," Ahmad said, adding that local people through their comments had made the life of the victim more difficult than the perpetrators of the attack.

He said shifting from their hometown had caused difficulties for the family from every aspect, especially financially because they had to rent a house. Ahmed said he and his brother, who was a labourer, were the bread earners of the family. He said he had to quit his job for the prolonged treatment of the boy and the family was dependent for its survival on the hardly Rs15,000 earned by his brother in a month. After treatment at Nishter Hospital, the family was advised to bring the victim to Lahore. "We came to Sheikh Zayed Hospital and they referred us to Mayo Hospital.".

On August 30, the suspects Umar Korai and Shaftar alias Dabri Jheel asked the victim to escort them to have fish from Landi Patafi, a nearby place. While on the way, they tried to sexually assault the boy at gunpoint at a deserted place. They shot at him when he resisted. A report by a non-governmental organisation, Sahil, asserted that eight children fell victim to sexual abuse daily on average in the country in first six months of 2020. At least 1,489 children were subjected to sexual assault. In the first half of 2019, the number was 1,304. During the last three months, 19 complaints about child abuse were submitted from 13 districts to Punjab Ombudsman Azam Suleman.