KARACHI, Dec 28: A 12-year-old boy was held captive and brutally tortured for over two days by his stepfather in Pirabad.

The boy, Mohammad Rafiq, aged 12, managed to set himself free from the ropes his stepfather, Noor Mohammad, aged 40, had tied him with and reached the Pirabad police station on Friday.

Police said that Noor Mohammad inflicted burns all over the body of Rafiq with a red-hot iron rod.

A duty officer of the Pirabad police station told Dawn that he had never seen such a case of torture; the iron rod was used with the victim’s clothing on and pieces of cloth were stuck with the wounds.

He added that the burn wounds were present all over the body, including hands, legs, back and hips.

The police officer said the victim’s fingers were also badly wounded as Noor Mohammad had tried to pull out the boy’s nails from his fingers. He said his fingers were in such a bad condition that they hardly seemed human, rather they looked like pieces of meat.

The duty officer said the boy was in a miserable state and was likely to remain hospitalised for quite a while before he could recover.

Police said that the victim had broken free from captivity with his mother’s help and was brought to the police station by his cousin, Saleem.

Police said that Noor Mohammad, a handicapped taxi driver, was the victim’s paternal uncle and had three kids from Rafiq’s mother, Khamroz.

Rafiq was sent to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment where he was admitted. Noor Mohammad was arrested and has been kept in the Pirabad police station lockup.