Hyderabad: Sheik Mustafa had been rushed to the Osmania General Hospital after he was set ablaze. From there he was shifted to the Apollo DRDO Hospital that specialises in burns. “The boy, who suffered more than 90 per cent burns, succumbed at 8.15 am on Thursday,” said West Zone deputy commissioner of police V. Satyanarayana.
“Sheik Mustafa, 11, was brought to ER at the Apollo DRDO with alleged thermal burns on October 8, 2014 at 2 pm. The patient had a cardiac arrest at 7.45 am on Thursday. CPR was administered after which patient had arrest again at 8.30 am followed ACLS protocol. He was declared dead at 8.50 am,” stated an official press release from Apollo Hospital, DRDO.
His body was taken back to the Osmania General Hospital for post-mortem under tight police security, after which it was taken home. Three forensic teams also visited the site and collected samples for testing. The area of the incident has been cordoned off.
Mustafa’s father Sheik Muqeet is a taxi driver and his mother Shakera Begum, is a housewife. He has three brothers and one sister, all below 16 years of age. “I want justice for my son. Is this the way the Army treats children?” asked a devastated Ms Qamar.
The victim’s uncle Ibrahim Saro, daily wage labourer said, “I rushed to the spot, he had many burn injuries. He was a small child who studied at the nearby madrasa. Some kids at times tend to step in the restricted area without realising and play there. What aggravated the Army officials so much?”
A case of attempt to murder was registered in connection with the incident against unknown persons on Wednesday, but after the child’s death on Thursday, the Section has been altered to 302 of the IPC (murder).
Locals suspect that Mustafa may have been molested, which they said, he had not been able to explain in his statement. During the funeral, Jaffar Hussain Meraj, the deputy mayor, was made to swear on the body that justice would be done.Traffic also slowed to a crawl on the Mehdipatnam road.
