Maid’s ‘suicide’ becomes a mystery

Teenager’s body was found hanging at employer’s house

DIJKOT:

The family of a housemaid cried foul after she allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in Dijkot.

Police have registered a report and sent the evidence collected from the spot to Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PSFA) in Lahore.

As per the police report, Samira Bibi, 18-year-old daughter of Liaquat Ali, a resident of Kamoana Jaranwala, was a maid in the house of factory owner Mian Farrukh, a resident of Ayub Colony area for many years. She committed suicide by hanging herself for unknown reasons on Tuesday afternoon.

Rescue 1122 was informed by a security guard after seeing the body hanging.

DSP Factory Area Malik Tariq, SHO Mian Asghar and other officers from Ayub Research Centre police post reached the spot.

Police took away the body and handed it over to the family after her postmortem at Allied Hospital.

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However, members of the family of Samira Bibi alleged that the employer had tried to stage the death as suicide after torturing and killing her. According to SHO Asghar, accidental death of the deceased for unknown reasons had been recorded and no sign of torture had been found on the body.

Further action will be taken after the postmortem report is received, the official said.

In a similar incident last month, an 11-year-old housemaid was tortured by a private schoolteacher with a hot iron for not ironing clothes properly on Canal Road in Khurrianwala.

The Child Protection Bureau (CPB) team took the girl into their custody and carried out her medical examination and registered a case against the school teacher. Meanwhile, the school teacher has been granted bail by the court till June 17.

Police said Madiha, a private schoolteacher living in Eden Valley on Canal Road, hired an 11-year-old girl, a resident of Luckwala Sahiwal, as a housemaid at her house on a salary of Rs8,000 a month a year ago.

During this time, Erum continued to work in school as well. However, Madiha used to burn off the body of the housemaid with hot knives, bread tongs etc. for small mistakes.

On June 10, after obtaining a search warrant from the Child Protection Court, they rescued the minor girl at 3.30 pm, who said in her statement that Madiha did not even allow her to visit her family and there was not a day when she did not torture her.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2021.