Sue the school, child advocacy group tells Thaqif’s family
Sharmila Sekaran, the chairman of Voice of Children, says the family should gather all the evidence related to his alleged beatings, such as x-rays and photographs.
Sharmila Sekaran, the chairman of NGO Voice of Children, said: “From the media reports I have read so far, it appears that the school has failed to protect the boy. We have a situation where the boy was beaten to an extent he suffered tremendous pain and swelling.
“The parents should have the x-rays and photos to show there was opening of the skin, puncturing or cutting of the skin resulting in the boy getting a skin tear, swelling, getting an infection and dying,” she told FMT when asked to comment on Thaqif who died at 2.06pm at Hospital Sultan Ismail (HSI) in Johor Bahru.
Thaqif was admitted to HSI on Wednesday for injuries to his legs after he was allegedly beaten by the assistant warden of the Islamic religious school he was attending.
The lawyer said by now the police should have taken the pipe or the hose used to hit the boy as evidence.
She said she’d read that there was a CCTV in the school compound but she was not sure if it had recorded the incident. “The parents would want to collect all this evidence to present in the potential civil suit.”
Sharmila said there was also a break in the events leading to the incident. The doctors, she said, were unable to confirm how the legs got infected with gangrene to a point where they had to be amputated.
“Perhaps the family should get a post mortem done too.”
She said her child advocacy group would like to see a detailed investigation into the case.
On Friday, HSI doctors amputated Thaqif’s legs in a bid to prevent infection to tissues and blood cells in his body. The following day, though, he lapsed into a coma.
Doctors later found that his right hand had turned black due to a bacterial infection and blood clots had started to form on his left shoulder. They informed his family that his arm had also turned necrotic.
Thaqif had been due for further surgery to amputate his right arm this morning. However, it was postponed as the condition of his heart was not stable.
The assistant warden was arrested at his home in Felda Lok Heng Barat, Kota Tinggi, last Saturday, following a police report lodged on April 18 by Thaqif’s mother.
His remand order was due to expire today, but it was extended for another three days until Saturday to facilitate the probe into the case.
Thaqif’s aunt Dzuraidah Ahmad had previously told The Star that Thaqif had complained to his mother about the beatings and had also writen in his diary about how the abuse had started last month.
“Dear Allah, please open my parents’ hearts to allow me to transfer to another school because I cannot stand it anymore. Please, Allah, make my wishes come true,” the daily quoted from one of Thaqif’s diary entries, as related by his aunt.
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