Rawal a young Christian boy burnt in a brick kiln at Faisalabad
The news was viral on social media that a young Christian Rawal aged 20-21 s/o Khursheed was thrown into the furnace at a brick kiln in Khushall Town District Faisalabad. The incident happened on April 07, 2024 (Sunday) at midnight. No FIR was registered about this incident. The family received the dead body (bones of their son) for burial.
On April 15, 2024 CLAAS team visited the aggrieved family of deceased Rawal for condolences. The team also visited the place of the incident brick kiln Khushall Town Faisalabad.
The team met with the concerned police officer Station House Officer Mr. Aftab, police station Saddar, Faisalabad. He shared that he investigated the matter and asked Rawal’s parents to register a complaint regarding this incident. He showed a written statement to the team in which Khursheed Masih stated that his son’s death was an accident. No one is responsible for this incident therefore he does not want to take action against anyone.
The family is residing in Dasoowa village 242 faraway from the place of incident 225-B Khushall Town. The family told the CLAAS team that Rawal was a driver by profession and for the last 10 years had driven a rented vehicle. He was the only bread earner of the family as Khurseed Masih is 62 years old and could not work properly due to illness.
On the day of the incident i.e. April 07, 2024 (Sunday) at about 3: 00 pm in the evening their son Rawal told them that he is going with his friend Irslan s/o Mushtaq Masih to purchase the bricks for his vehicle’s owner. They went to the brick kiln of Bilal Ameen Saroyia Jutt to purchase the bricks.
Later on, Irslan informed to Ashfaq (paternal uncle of Rawal) that Rawal was missing. Ashfaq is a driver and he immediately reached at the brick kiln of Bilal Ameen Saroyia and was informed that his nephew was burnt in the furnace as he was using his phone while standing on the main hole of the furnace, lose his balance and accidentally fell down in the kiln. The family received this news at about 11: 00pm at midnight.
The family added that their son’s death was an accident and they have no animosity against anyone and that the viral social media news of him being killed is fake and has no truth in it. Further told that the owner of the brick kiln had not met with them and they were not compensated by him as they did not want any compensation from him.
Khrusheed Masih further said that his elder daughter Aqsa is married. Hina is 19 years old and staying at home, Dilawar 15 years old is getting skills from a workshop, and Sagar 14 years old is also staying home. They have no proper income resources and they are living in a house which was provided by the local authorities to their workers.
The team also visited the place of occurrence and a middle-aged Christian woman, shared with the CLAAS team that her two sons are working on this brick kiln. She said that no one had thrown Rawal in the kiln; he accidentally fell in the kiln. The brick kiln owner and his workers were not present at the brick kiln. The CLAAS team also tried to know about this incident from the locals who are staying in front of the brick kiln but no one was ready to share about this incident. One of them said that he is not aware about this incident and he knew through us that an unpleasant incident happened in this brick kiln.
April 16, 2024
