Cops arrest five over minor’s mysterious death

Police suspect 14-year-old boy resisted rape, ran to seminary’s roof to protect himself

HYDERABAD:

As the police try to disentangle the enigma around the death of a 14-year-old seminary student, who fell from the roof of a mosque in Sehwan, Jamshoro district, some leads have surfaced indicating that the death may not have been by suicide. The incident happened on March 22.

Hyderabad SSP Abdul Salam Shaikh, who was assigned inquiry of the incident, told the media in Sehwan on Wednesday that the police will soon expose the culprit. According to the SSP, the police suspect that the boy resisted a rape attempt and ran towards the roof to protect himself.

Police sources disclosed that five suspects were arrested from the seminary and that one of them has confessed that he attempted to rape the deceased.

Read: Dadu court convicts two for raping a minor

The SSP added that the police will lodge an FIR on the complaint of the deceased’s father, Farooq Babbur.

Babbur, who is a journalist based in Dadu district and works for a news television channel, expressed suspicion that his son was assaulted and raped. He has demanded a DNA test to identify the culprit.

According to him, his son was not wearing a shalwar [trouser] when he fell from the roof.

He maintained that the seminary's administration did not inform him about the incident and that he came to know about his son’s death from someone at the Sehwan taluka hospital. The aggrieved father said that he was informed that his son had been brought to the hospital, where he died.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2021.