‘Uncle, please stop now, or else, I will die,’ pleaded Khulna boy with killers who were filling his body with air

Rakib Hawladar’s screams could not melt the hearts of his torturers in Khulna, says one of his friends who heard him.

‘Akib’, whose real name has been withheld for his safety, was walking past the motor garage at Tutparha graveyard in Khulna during the torture of the 12-year-old boy on Monday night.

‘Akib’ told bdnews24.com on Tuesday, “When air was being forced into his body with the pump, I heard him saying, ‘uncle, please stop now, or else, I am going to die’.”

Rakib used to call Mia uncle.

Mia is a distant uncle of garage owner 'Sharif'.

The boy had left the job to escape his torture and took another at a nearby garage at the city’s Khan Jahan Ali Road.

Rakib’ family alleged it was because of this reason that an annoyed Mia assaulted him.

His mother Lucky Begum said she could not forget her son’s sufferings in death-pangs at the hospital.

Md Rakib

“Rakib told me ‘Mother, I’m not going to make it, my chest is exploding in pain. Oh mother, please save me’.”

The doctor who treated Rakib at the Khulna Medical College and Hospital (KMCH) emergency unit said, “His intestines were torn apart and lungs burst due to pumping of an abnormal amount of air into his body.”

Locals caught the garage owner ‘Sharif’, 35, his uncle Mintu Mia, 40 and Sharif's mother Beauty Begum, 55, right after Rakib’s death.

Rakib’s day labourer father Nurul Alam Hawlader came from Satkhira to Khulna three years ago and started living at a shanty at Tutparha Central Road.

He sent his son, a student of Grade IV, to the garage to earn some money for the family.

Sharif Motors, the garage where the boy was tortured to death

Rakib’s mother Begum said, “The garage owner used to swear at him and beat him for any and every reason. It made Rakib to find work at Nasir’s garage at PTI intersection.”

She said, “This made Mintu Mia angry.”

Locals are stunned by such a brutal killing of a boy over such a trivial matter.

“What was the crime of my beloved son?” asked the mother.

All locals and relatives present beside had no answer.