Father and son set themselves on fire after cops refuse to register complaint

Six-year-old boy and father attempt suicide in front of Aiwan-e-Adl.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: A six-year-old boy and his father threatened to commit suicide in front of the Aiwan-e-Adl today.

Kala resident six-year-old Mehmood and his father Shaukat Karim attempted suicide in front of the Aiwan-e-Adl by setting themselves on fire. Eyewitnesses said they saw the father and son arrive in front of the Aiwan-e-Adl in the afternoon, they chanted slogans against the police and appealed for help. After a large crowd gathered around them, both father and son sprinkled petrol on themselves and set themselves on fire.

“We rushed to push them to the ground and they both survived,” said a local resident Najam.

Aziz and his son were protesting against the police and said that the Dera Ghazi Khan police had refused to register a case against several men who had brutally beaten Mehmood on Thursday.  “My son had taken vegetables from Kaleem’s fields and his men beat him to a pulp,” Aziz said, adding that he had taken his son to the police to register a case but the police had refused him point blank.

Khan admitted that he stole a turnip from Kaleem’s fields and a moment later found himself seized by his men. “I was returning from school and I picked a turnip from the field. I was on my way to a vendor to put spices on it when they got hold of me,” Khan told reporters. “My son is only six-years-old and he only took a turnip. These men beat him with a cricket bat and there were at least four of them,” Aziz said.

Shaukat Karimsaid that he and his son repeated the event to the police but they refused to file a case against Kaleem and his accomplices. “Kaleem owns a lot of land and they don’t want to take any action against him,” Aziz said. After repeated attempts at trying to file the case Aziz said that he decided to protest by threatening suicide. “Many people asked me why I was setting myself on fire but I know that no one would pay any attention to the matter otherwise,” Aziz said. “The only way people even notice our problems is if the media takes it up or we do something drastic,” he said.

Following the father and son’s attempt at self immolation locals accompanied the two men to Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Sheikh Tanvir’s office. A large crowd gathered around the ADSJ’s office as the judge took notice of the incident and summoned the Kala SHO to submit a report on the case. The judge also ordered that a medical legal certificate of the child be handed over to the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2011.