The family of an eight-year-old Indian boy is demanding answers following his sudden death on the campus of a school in Sharjah’s Muwaileh area.
Rashid Yasar, a Grade 1 student, passed away on March 11, the first day of Ramadan, shortly after arriving at the CBSE-curriculum school around 7 am.
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A forensic report from the Sharjah Police indicates that Rashid sustained a fresh bruise on the left side of his face extending to the eyebrow, internal bleeding under the scalp, a fracture of the left cheekbone, severe swelling, and multiple haemorrhagic points in the brain’s core, along with traumatic bleeding on the brain’s surface.
The autopsy revealed that the head injury caused a severe concussion, resulting in significant swelling and multiple bleeding points in the brain’s core.
CCTV footage from the school shows Rashid being teased by some boys as he walked to the assembly area. A small boy kicked him playfully twice. In the next frame, four boys are seen running after him — and a few seconds later, Rashid falls and hits the ground. The critical moments leading to his fall are not captured on CCTV, leaving a gap in the sequence of events.
The parents and grandparents of Rashid allege that he was attacked and bullied during these missing seconds.
“We will not rest until we find out what happened to my dear son,” his father, Habib Yasar, told Khaleej Times.
Habib, 34, who also has a younger son aged about three years, has sought assistance from the Indian Consulate, demanding action against the school for failing to protect their child.
“A school is supposed to be like a second home, but it didn’t take care of my child, who was a victim of bullying on the school premises,” he wrote in a letter to the Consul-General of India. “We have lost a loved one, and we don’t want other children to face the same situation,” the letter states.
School’s response
The school, however, denied the bullying allegations in an e-mail response to Khaleej Times.
“We share the agony with the family due to the sudden loss, but undue misrepresentation of facts is evidenced in the allegations,” the school principal said. The school declined to explain why Rashid was not accompanied by a nanny from the bus to the classroom and why there was no CCTV camera in the assembly area to capture the critical final moments of Rashid’s life. It also did not address why no condolence or prayer meeting was held for the deceased, and why parents of his classmates were not informed about the incident. “We are not in a position to answer your queries at the moment due to pending enquiries with authorities,” the principal added. [Editor’s Note: Khaleej Times is withholding the name of the school due to the ongoing investigation.]
Habib described his son as a happy, joyful, healthy child with no history of medical issues, mischief, or violence. “The last time we saw him alive was entering the school bus at 6.30am on that fateful morning, looking forward to having an amazing day at school. Who would have thought we would get a call from school after one hour saying he had collapsed?” he lamented.
Rashid was initially taken to the school clinic and his parents were informed that he had collapsed. On their way to the campus, they got another call and was told the boy “does not have a heartbeat and was sent to Qasimiya hospital”. At the hospital, the doctor and medics tried reviving him for 45 minutes but he was declared dead.
The child’s grandparents, Sayyad and Shama, broke down several times as they remembered Rashid, saying they have been unable to sleep since the incident.
“He was such a darling. The day before the incident, he accompanied me to the mosque for Taraweeh prayers,” said Sayyad. Shama added that their lives have been turned upside down, but they can’t even grieve properly as Rashid’s aged great-grandparents, who also live with them, are still unaware of the incident.
“It will be too hard for them if they found out the truth. We have told them we sent Rashid to a residential madrasa. I don’t know how long we can continue with our lies because they are not convinced and keep asking Rashid’s mother why he wasn’t there for Eid festivals,” she said.
“Nothing could be more painful for a parent than losing a child suddenly. It is an irreparable loss, and this tragedy will haunt us forever,” said Habib, adding, “But a closure will ease some of our pain. That is what we ask for.”