12-year-old maid ‘starved, tortured to death’ by employer in Lahore: police

A 12-year-old maid, who was found dead last week, was starved for days and tortured to death by her employers, said police on Thursday.

According to Samaa, the child employed by a family in Iqbal Town, Lahore, was assaulted multiple times over a period of two months. She was starved for long hours, revealed her post-mortem report.

“The report disclosed that she was not raped,” the investigation officer was quoted as saying. The police have arrested the employer, Saira Bano who confessed to the crime during questioning, it added.

“Bano said that her sister-in-law Nasreen was also involved,” the officer was quoted by the media outlet. The police are conducting raids to arrest her as soon as possible, it added.

On Jan 30, the father of the deceased minor approached the police with a complaint that her daughter was “killed and raped” by the employers who had hired her services as a maid.

The media report said that her father, a resident of Sheikhupura, said that on January 27 they received a call from her employer Bano.

Bano told them that their daughter wasn’t feeling well. “When we reached there, my daughter was unconscious,” he said, adding that the child was immediately moved to a hospital where the doctor pronounced her dead.

A case has been registered under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.