An 11-year-old girl, who was rescued by police two days ago from a dustbin in the capital, is now getting support from law enforcers, human rights groups and the public as she recovers from her ordeal at a government hospital.
She even got a new dress from some strangers, who came to see her after reading her story in the newspaper, but left without giving their names.
The torture wounds all over Aduri’s body are also healing with the care of doctors at the Dhaka Medical college Hospital. She has started to talk clearly, and remember the painful things that happened to her in the past two months at the hands of the owner of the house, where her mother had sent her to work for food. Lying on her hospital bed on Wednesday, the girl said she used to wash dishes and do the cleaning and dusting at the house.
One day, out of a child’s curiosity, she tried on a pair of earrings belonging to her employer, and was caught. And the torture began.
She said the woman, whom she called “khalamma” (aunt), cut her skin with razor blades and singed her with a heated iron. The woman’s two grown-up daughters also beat her sometimes.
Meanwhile, a team from the Victim Support Centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police visited Aduri at the hospital’s neurosurgery department on Wednesday.
Sub-inspector Rehana Akhter from the centre said they came to see the victim to make sure she was receiving proper treatment. Several legal aid and human rights bodies have also come forward to offer support to the child.
After visiting Aduri, Mahmuda Khatun Maya of Ain o Salish Kendra said the organisation wanted to take responsibility for the girl’s future and ensure she gets back to her parents.
Moreover, police investigators were trying to trace the culprits who tortured her, an officer at Cantonment police station said.
Aduri cannot recall her employer’s name or the area where she worked. She could only say her father’s name was Khaleq Mridha and her mother Shafia Begum.
Abdul Mannan, an assistant sub-inspector of Cantonment police, found Aduri in a dustbin as he was patrolling the Gulshan-Baridhara area on Monday. Mannan said the girl’s employer might have dumped her in the garbage after torture, thinking she was dead.
