Child labourer allegedly beaten to death by kiln contractor
A kiln contractor allegedly tortured a nine-year-old boy to death during forced labour and hid his body in a room near Jhang Road in Thirkriwala.
According to the police report, Rizwan, the nine-year-old son of Ramzan, a labourer working at the kiln of Chaudhry Ghulam Sarwar Gujjar near Chak No. 241RB Chachanal Walabai Pass, was tortured by Sultan, a contractor, along with his wife Shahnaz Bibi and daughters for making less bricks and was allegedly forced to continue working.
Rizwan was brutally beaten by the contractor and his family for not working more, which resulted in his death.
The contractor locked the father and mother of the slain child in a room and placed the body in another room where goats were kept.
He also called a gravedigger from a nearby cemetery and told him to begin digging a grave for burying the child at night.
SHO Thikriwala Rana Umar Daraz received information about the incident and raided the kiln did not find the body and the family of the child.
When the police interrogated the gravedigger, he revealed the details of the incident. Police arrested Sultan and his family members, recovered the body and rescued his parents locked in a room.
The police handed over the body to the heirs after postmortem and registered a case against six suspects including the contractor, his wife and two daughters on charges of murder on the complaint of the victim’s father Ramzan.
According to the SHO, a brother of the deceased was also found in the kiln and he had also been tortured, therefore, his medical examination was being conducted.
According to some local reports, the labourers were forced to work at the kiln and were tied with chains at night.
According to the police, teams of the Child Protection Bureau also reached the police station to look into the case.
Incidents of violence against child workers ate reported almost every other day from various parts of the province.
Last month, an incident of torture on a child domestic help was reported in Wahdat Colony at the house of a government official.
Reportedly, a neighbour informed the police that a child domestic labourer was screaming for help while being tortured inside a house. A police team responded to the call and jumped into the house using a ladder to rescue the child as the main door was locked.
In the first week of March, a case of torture on a minor domestic help was surfaced in Faisalabad.
In December last year, a minor domestic worker died reportedly due to brutal torture and alleged rape by her employers in Iqbal Town.
A few days before the incident, a maid was brutally tortured reportedly for breaking a pot in Faisalabad. The incident was captured on CCTV footage and the video had gone viral on social media.
Last year in January, a minor maid was allegedly tortured and killed by her employer in Chung. The girl had suffered injuries on different parts of her body including her face and head.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2021.