Yet another savagery in Bangladesh

It’s a murder most horrid.

His only “fault” was that he left his old garage job and joined elsewhere. And for this, he died a cruel death allegedly at the hands of his former employer.

Garage owner Md Sharif and his uncle Mintu Khan stripped naked 13-year-old Rakib, inserted a high-pressure air pump nozzle into his rectum and filled the body with air at his motor workshop.

Rakib’s intestines were torn apart and his lungs burst on the impact of the air that filled his abdomen, police said quoting doctors.

The barbaric killing happened at Tutpara Kabarkhana in Khulna on Monday, barely a month into the gruesome murder of Samiul Alam Rajon, also 13, in Sylhet.

Outraged, locals caught Mintu, Sharif and his mother Beauty Begum and handed them over to the police. Before the handover, locals beat Mintu and Sharif.

Yesterday, locals blocked the central road, staged demonstrations and brought out a procession, demanding maximum punishment to the alleged killers.

Rakib had been working at Sharif’s garage for Tk 50 a day for the last two years to support his family. His mother Lucky Begum works as a domestic help. His father, Nur Alam, left the family and now lives in Satkhira, said Parul Begum, the boy’s aunt.

About five months ago, he left Sharif’s garage — Sharif Motors — in Tutpara, as Sharif and Mintu often beat him, she told The Daily Star by phone.

Rakib, a school dropout, then started working at another garage, which annoyed Sharif.

“As he went to buy some paint from a shop next to Sharif’s garage yesterday [Monday] afternoon, Sharif called him in his repair shop,” said Parul, quoting witnesses.

“Sharif stripped off Rakib’s trousers, pushed a tyre pumper into his rectum and pumped air into his body,” she added.

His family learned this about two hours later and they found him at the Khulna Medical College Hospital.

Locals said the boy started throwing up near the garage gate with his abdomen swelled by the air. Within minutes, he fainted.

At this, Sharif and Mintu took him to a local clinic and then to Khulna Sadar Hospital. They took him to KMCH when his condition worsened.

Parul said as they rushed to the KMCH after Magrib prayers, they found Sharif, Mintu and Beauty there. Locals then caught the trio and handed them over to the police. Beauty Begum was present during the torture but did not save the boy.

She added they started heading for Dhaka in an ambulance and halted before Ad-din Hospital in Baikali, hoping to take Rakib to Dhaka by a helicopter as they heard the hospital had the facility. But the doctors there declared Rakib dead around 10:30pm.

Sharif and Mintu were injured in the beating and were admitted to the KMCH under police custody, said Sukumar Biswas, officer-in-charge of Khulna Sadar Police Station.

Child Rights Advocacy Coalition in Bangladesh (CRACB) yesterday expressed deep shock and condemned the killing.

CRACB, a platform of different non-government, international and civil society organisations working to ensure child rights, said news of brutal torture and killing of children were being published in the media for the last few days.

“We are concerned and aggrieved by the recurrence of such incidents and the nature of brutalities,” reads a press release.

The organisations said the perpetrators go unpunished in many cases and the long delay of the trial of such incidents appears to be the main reason for recurrence of the crime.

Rakib was buried at Tutpara graveyard yesterday afternoon.

“I want justice from my son’s killing. I want the capital punishment of the three,” Rakib’s mother Lucky Begum told reporters.

Meanwhile, Rakib’s father filed a murder case against Sharif, Mintu and Beauty, said the OC.

A three-member committee led by Additional Police Commissioner Mahbub Hakim of Khulna Metropolitan Police will oversee the investigation into the case.