11-year-old domestic help suffer burns

A minor girl, who worked as a domestic help at a Siddheswari house in the capital, suffered severe burn injuries after she allegedly tried to set herself on fire yesterday.

With 95 percent of her body burnt, she is now fighting for her life at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Jaba Akhtar, 11, hails from Bogra.

“Her condition is very critical,” Partha Sankar Paul, resident surgeon at the burn unit, told The Daily Star.

 As Jaba was groaning in excruciating pain, she could only tell newsmen that Synthiya and Poly, members of the family where she worked, beat her up.

Quoting the girl, Sharif Hossain, sub-inspector of Ramna Police Station, said she tried to set herself on fire inside the kitchen of her employer's house.

He, however, could not say how the girl set herself afire.

He also said he could not ask Jaba any further questions as doctors did not allow him to do so.

Quoting the owner of the house, Kallol, a bank official, the SI said Jaba had started working at the house three years ago. But she was sent back to her village home a year later as the family came to know that the girl was mentally ill.

Sharif added that Kallol let her work at his house again six months ago on request of Jaba's parents.

He said an investigation was going on.