12-year-old domestic worker found dead at employer’s house

A 12-year-old boy hired as a domestic worker was found hanged in the house of his employer in the city's Gulberg, police reported on Monday.

According to Gulberg SHO Majid Alvi, the owner of the house called the police claiming that he found the victim Javed's body hanging from a ceiling fan.

Alvi said a team of policemen shifted the boy’s body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) for a post-mortem examination.

The SHO said the initial medico-legal examination report suggested the victim had died of suffocation but no marks of torture were found on his body.

Responding to a question, Alvi said the victim had started working at the house four days ago. He was brought to the workplace by his maternal aunt.

The SHO said the aunt was interrogated by the police to ascertain reasons of the suicide. The police would issue a final statement over the murder after the completion of the investigation, he added.

On March 23, Rizwan Shaikh, a resident of Khayaban-e-Shamsheer was arrested by the Darakshan police after a complaint of torturing his 11-year-old domestic worker, Asghar was filed by the boy’s father, Muhammad Ishaq.

The father had told the police that he had left Asghar at Shaikh’s house two years ago and the latter had barred him from seeing his son since. Ishaq also told the police that Asghar had not since been allowed to visit his family in Badin either.

Clifton SP Dr Assad Malhi had confirmed that torture marks were found on the minor’s body. “The boy [Asghar] told the police that the owner of the house and his wife beat him up brutally over minor mistakes.”