Child labour: Auto mechanics accused of assaulting five-year-old

Parveen Bibi claims her son Rameez was thrashed for missing work.

HARIPUR:

Two auto mechanics were accused of physically assaulting a minor boy for not showing up at work, the police said on Thursday.

Parveen Bibi, a resident Mohallah Roshanabad, told the City police her five-year-old son Rameez was beaten by his cousins Yasir and Zubair, who run a workshop in the area. Rameez was going there after school to learn how to repair motorcycles, she added.

Bibi said her son took a day off on Tuesday as he was unwell, but returned to work on Wednesday. The two mechanics allegedly punished him for this by thrashing him. Bibi alleged they used iron wires to assault her son. “They stuffed a piece of cloth in his mouth to stop him from crying and thrashed him for more than an hour,” she said, adding Rameez fell unconscious as a result.

“I found bruises and abrasions on his back, thighs and buttocks,” she claimed, adding her son could not walk properly after he returned home following the incident.

At first, police officials tried persuading Bibi to settle the matter with the accused, but she refused and went to the DPO’s office where DPO Najibur Rehman Bhagvi ordered an FIR be registered. The accused were later arrested and the victim was offered medical and legal assistance by human rights organisations.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2013.