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Pakistani boy loses arms after row with landowner's son

This article is more than 12 months old

A 10-year-old Pakistani boy's arms were amputated after he was assaulted and thrown into a well by a landowner's son.

Pakistani police have arrested him. It is the latest case highlighting harsh treatment of villagers by so-called feudal families.

A tiny number of families own huge tracts of land in Pakistan, in particular its bread-basket province of Punjab, and political parties woo the families, hoping to win the votes of the villagers working for them.

Police said the injured boy’s father, Muhammad Iqbal, had a long-running dispute with landowner Ghulam Ghaus who accused Iqbal of letting his cows gaze on his land in central Punjab.

“Iqbal’s son, Mohammad Tabassum, was grazing the cows near Ghaus’s fields on Monday when one of the cows went on his land,” district police officer, Rai Ijaz Ahmed, said on Friday.

Boy thrown into well

The landowner’s son, Ghulam Mustafa, beat up the boy, tied up his hands and then threw him onto a well where his arms were mangled in the well’s pump, Ahmed said.

“The arms were left attached just by a bit of flesh and doctors had to completely amputate them,” he said.

Police arrested Mustafa and a court ordered he be held for 10 days, Ahmed said. Landowner Ghulam Ghaus could not be reached for comment. -- Reuters