Killed for Tk 910?

All that the 13-year-old boy did was demand seven days' arrears from his employer, a restaurant owner.

Furious at his "arrogance", the restaurant owner and his son began to beat him up when other employees of the restaurant were leaving as it was closing time late Friday night.  

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At day break, villager Younus, on his way to the mosque, peeked inside the roadside restaurant to see why it was open so early. To his horror he found the lifeless body of Akram Hossain hanging from the ceiling.

The owner Solaiman Ali and his son Mozaffar Ali, who were near the scene, disappeared as the shocked villager started screaming.

The incident happened in Sheikh Haat village of Rangpur's Badarganj upazila.

On information from locals, police recovered the body of Akram, a student class-VI, and sent it to Rangpur Medical College morgue for autopsy.

"We are searching for Solaiman and Mozaffar. We suspect it was a murder," said Aktaruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Badarganj Police Station, adding that there were marks of torture all over Akram's body and his hands were tied together.

When The Daily Star correspondent called Solaiman in the afternoon and asked about Akram's death, he said, "The boy committed suicide," and hung up. His phone was unreachable then on.

The victim's father Ashraf Ali said his son worked at the restaurant to support his studies.

"His daily wage was Tk 130. Since Solaiman didn't pay him in the last seven days, he must have asked for the money," said the grieving father.

Quoting other employees of the restaurant, the OC said Solaiman and his son lost their temper when the boy asked for Tk 910.

As the boy insisted, they began to beat him up, he added.