Savagery in the name of discipline continues

Another boy was beaten up after being tied to a tree. Again the reason was pretty much similar -- “punishment for theft”-- but unlike 13-year-old Rajon this boy was lucky to survive.

This time it was Chittagong's Sitakunda upazila where 12-year-old Takrim Hossain Sourav, a class-five student of Uttar Solimpur Government Primary School, fell victim to child abuse.

Sourav is now undergoing treatment at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) as he had fever and started foaming at the mouth and then fainted after he was taken to his house on Friday morning.

The doctors, finding no internal or external injury, released him on Saturday but he was again admitted as the family complained that he once again passed out at home. The boy is now having respiratory disorder and also complaining about pain in the left leg, said doctors.

“Manjur punched me, kicked me and pushed me to ground and finally tied me to a tree. He beat me up with a stick and few more people also accompanied him,” Sourav told this correspondent.

However, the boy initially said it was a stick and later mentioned it as an iron rod.

Sourav occasionally helped Manjur Alam, 45, of Uttar Solimpur area, in household chores.

Police arrested Manjur. During primary interrogation, he admitted to beating him with a stick. But he gave different statements at different times regarding the theft and was placed on a five-day remand for interrogation.

Sourav on Thursday night hid on Manjur's roof to avoid being rebuked by his parents for bunking classes. The next morning, around 5:30am Manjur found him there and tortured him claiming that he had stolen Tk 5,000 from his house on Wednesday, said police.

Later around 8:00am, Sourav's mother Dilwara Begum was informed about the incident and upon arriving she found their boy still tied to the tree on Manjur's house premises.

Mohammad Badsha, Sourav's father, a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver, filed a case against Manjur and Najir.