MIRPURKHAS, Aug 22: A teenage boy was arrested here on Friday for stealing two kilogrammes of flour from a shop.

However, he was freed after about three hours of detention on the intervention of a councillor.

Thirteen-year-old Gordhan Meghwar of Sattar Nagar says that he was compelled to steal because his mother and 10-year-old sister had been without food for three days. His father had died a year ago and his elder brother is unemployed.

The boy, who worked in a shop, said his employer had promised a salary of Rs3,000 but paid only Rs1,500. He said that earlier he got a few things on credit from the shop but now when he wanted some flour the shopkeeper asked him to pay cash. He said that he could not see his mother and sister, who is a TB patient, starve and was forced to steal flour.

Hearing the story, former provincial minister Hari Ram Kishori Lal decided to give a job to his brother in his flour mill.

Mirpurkhas taluka nazim Ghulam Dastagir Kamali, in accordance with the directives of MQM leader Altaf Hussain, provided a month’s ration to the family.— Qamaruddin