A couple in northeast Pakistan was detained for having allegedly assassinated a 13-year-old girl who worked for them as a maid, for allegedly stolen chocolates.
The girl who is only by a name, Iqra, succumbed to several injuries in the hospital last Wednesday. A preliminary police investigation said it had been tortured.
The case in Rawalpindi aroused generalized indignation and publications with the hashtag #justiceforiqra collecting tens of thousands of views, and the debate reviving on children’s work and social ill -treatment of domestic workers.
Child labor laws can vary across the country, but children under the age of 15 cannot be employed as servants in the province of Punjab.
“I felt completely broken inside when he died,” Iqra’s father, Sana Ullah told the BBC.
He said he had received a police call about IQRA last Wednesday. When he rushed to the hospital, he saw Iqra lying on a bed, unconscious. She died a few minutes later.
Iqra started working as a maid from the age of eight. His father, a 45 -year -old farmer, said he had sent her to work because he was in debt.
After working for some employers, she went to work for the couple two years ago, who has eight children. She won about £ 23 ($ 28) per month.
The police said that Iqra had been accused of having stolen chocolates to his employers, adding that a preliminary investigation has shown that Iqra had been tortured.
Police also affirms that there were proof of frequent abuse. Photos and videos obtained by the BBC showed several fractures in his legs and arms, as well as a serious head injury.
An autopsy is underway to assess the full extent of her injuries, and the police told the BBC that she was still waiting for the final medical report.
“My heart cries from blood tears. How much … are subject to violence in their homes every day for trivial work of a few thousand?” The activist Shehr Bano wrote on X. “How long will the poor continue to lower their daughters in serious way?”
Others pointed out that his murder would have been triggered by something so minor.
“She died on chocolate?” asked for a Pakistani user on X.
“It is not only a crime, it is a reflection of the system (a) which allows (the) rich to treat (the) poor as disposable,” said another.
IQRA employers, Rashid Shafiq and his wife Sana, were arrested, with a teacher from the Koran, who worked for the family. The teacher had brought Iqra to the hospital and left after telling the hospital staff that the girl’s father died and that his mother was not there.
Police told the BBC that he was not clear if she thought it was the truth.
Iqra’s father says he wants to see “those responsible for the death of my punished daughter”.
Despite the indignation of the public, these cases have generally obtained, they are generally settled amicably and it is rare that the suspects are successfully prosecuted.
In 2018, a judge and his wife were sentenced to three years in prison for torturing their 10 -year -old maid in what had been a very publicized affair which aroused indignation across the country. But they then reduced their sorrows to one year.
Tayyaba was found with serious injuries, which, according to the Pakistani Institute of Medical Sciences, included burns in hands and feet. Photos of the girl also showed cuts and bruises on her face, as well as a swollen left eye. She told prosecutors that she had been beaten for losing a broom.
Under the Pakistani law, the victims or their families have the right to forgive suspects in a number of serious crimes. To do this, they must declare before the court that they forgive a suspect “in the name of God”.
In reality, legal observers claim that the main reason for this “forgiveness” is normally financial and that the payment of victims is not illegal.
About 3.3 million children in Pakistan are engaged in child labor, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In addition, women and young girls are a large majority of the 8.5 million domestic workers in Pakistan, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
