Islamabad: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan’s province of Punjab on Friday remanded to police custody for 10 days a landlord accused of allegedly causing a 10-year old boy to lose his arms.
Ghulam Mustafa allegedly beat the child and then pushed him onto a running water pumping machine in a village in Gujrat district, causing loss of his both arms.
The incident took place on July 21 in the village of Chak Bhula in Gujrat district but surfaced after three days when local television channels reported it and showed the armless boy lying on a hopsital bed.
Punjab’s Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, visited the victim, Tabbbasum Shahzad, in a Gujrat hospital on Friday and reportedly suspended some police officials in the area over the delay in registering a case and arresting the accused.
The accused was brought to the anti-terrorism court in the city of Gujranwala in Punjab amid tight security.
Leniency
Judge Imtiaz Ahmad asked the accused the reason for committing f such a brutal act to which he responded that it all happened unintentionally and asked for leniency, Dunyanews television channel reported.
The channel quoted the judge as saying that those who commit such brutal acts can neither be spared in this world nor in the world hereafter.
The boy’s father told the chief minister that Mustafa amputated this son’s arms over a financial row.
He told the chief minister that he was asked to purchase medicine for the victim from the market. On hearing this, Shabaz Sharif got infuriated and suspended the medical superintendent of the hopsital, the channel said.
The chief minister announced free medical treatment and education for the boy and assured his parents that strong action will be taken against the accused, according to the channel.
