BBC: ‘Arrested. Widespread indignation in the province of Punjab ‘
The Pachistani authorities arrested a couple in the north-east of the country suspected of having killed a 13-year-old maid who would have stolen them some chocolates, reports the BBC.
The girl, who had only one name – Iqra – died from multiple injuries in the hospital last Wednesday and according to a preliminary investigation of the police had been tortured.
The case, in the city of Rawalpindi in the province of Punjab, has unleashed a widespread indignation and post with the hashtag ‘#Justiceforiqra’ they collected tens of thousands of views and have rekindled the debate at juvenile work and the mistreatment of domestic workers. The laws relating to juvenile work may vary throughout the country, but children under the age of 15 cannot be employed as domestic workers in the province of Punjab.
“I felt completely destroyed inside when he died,” the father of Iqra, Sana Ulah, told the BBC. The man said he received a call from the police for his daughter last Wednesday: when he ran to the hospital, he saw Iqra lying on a bed, without a senses, and a few minutes after he saw her die. Iqra had started working as a maid since the age of eight: his father, a 45 -year -old farmer, said he had sent her to work because he was indebted. The young woman was at the service in the Rawalpindi family, who has had eight children, for two years and had earned the equivalent of around 27 euros per month.
