A seven-year-old boy was grabbed from the street by strangers to maim him so he would elicit more sympathy working for them as a beggar.  But when he recognised the men from his area and told them he would report them to his father, they decided to torture him, cutting off his penis and leaving [...]

Feeds Editorials Times Online

Sunday Times 2

Seven-year-old boy mutilated by gang so he’d earn more as a beggar

By Jill Reilly
View(s):

A seven-year-old boy was grabbed from the street by strangers to maim him so he would elicit more sympathy working for them as a beggar.  But when he recognised the men from his area and told them he would report them to his father, they decided to torture him, cutting off his penis and leaving him for dead on the streets of Bangladesh.

In some South Asian countries, the prevalence of ‘beggar mafias’ is becoming increasingly common.
The practice was portrayed in the 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire, in which a child in Mumbai, India, is intentionally blinded so he could bring in more money.

The tragic story was uncovered by CNN’s Freedom Project – they named the child, who can not be identified, as Okkhoy, the Bengali word for ‘unbreakable.’

The horrific attack on Okkhoy unfolded in late 2010, just a few days before the Muslim festival of Eid, when three local children lured the trusting child out of his home with the promise of a lolly.
It was then a group of neighborhood men grabbed him and pulled him into an alley, binding his hands and feet.

‘They tied me up and told me they’d force me to beg,’ said Okkhoy.  But their hope to maim Okkhoy turned into a plan to kill him after he told the men that he recognised them and he would tell his father.
One of the attackers grabbed a brick and Okkhoy lost consciousness after he was struck over the head.
They then set about carving up his body, slashing his throat and slicing his chest and belly in an upside down cross.

In a final brutal act, his attackers chopped off his penis and his right testicle. Okkhoy was dumped by the side of a warehouse – his attackers intended to come back later and dump him in the river.
But his mother, who had gone looking for her missing child, stumbled across his blood-soaked body.
‘I barely recognized him; he was so stained with blood,’ shes said.

She carried her young son’s body to the side of the main road where she was met by Okkhoy’s father Abed, who had been alerted by a neighbor.

‘It felt like the sky fell on me,’ he said. ‘As a father, there is no greater pain in the world than knowing that you could not protect your child.’ Okkhoy spent three months in a Dhaka hospital, but doctors were unable to do much to repair the severed organ.

Abed reported the attack to police, but was shocked to discover it had already been covered and the police would not investigate.  A judge also refused to help, but by sheer coincidence human rights lawyer, Alena Khan was in the courthouse and felt compelled to publicise the horrifying case.

Within days, the Rapid Action Battalion rounded up five suspects and charged them with attempted murder.
‘The boy started arguing with us and I hit him on his head with a brick,’ said one of the men in a televised confession.

‘After I hit him on the head, he fell to the ground. Then (one of the men) said to cut off his penis, and I cut it off. After that, (someone else) cut his chest and belly. Then (a third person) held his head and slit his throat,’ he said.

At the trial, according to prosecutors, it emerged that the gang maimed at least five other children to get money for begging.

The gang kept the children confined for months in tight spaces or even in barrels and deprived them of food and then send them out to beg, according to one of the men who confessed.

Authorities continue to look for four others who they claim are part of the same ‘beggar mafia’ gang.

© Daily Mail, London




Share This Post

DeliciousDiggGoogleStumbleuponRedditTechnoratiYahooBloggerMyspace
comments powered by Disqus

Advertising Rates

Please contact the advertising office on 011 - 2479521 for the advertising rates.