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On this day 31 years ago, a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed while riding a bicycle with his cousins in a village near Lahore, Pakistan.
His name was Iqbal Masih.
At four years old, his family sold him to a carpet factory owner to repay a debt of 600 rupees, less than $12. For the next six years, he was chained to a loom. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for a few cents. He was beaten with a carpet fork when he slowed down. The factory owners deliberately underfed the children so their fingers would stay small enough for the intricate weaving.
By the time he was 10, he stood just four feet tall, 12 inches shorter than the average boy his age.
One morning, he escaped. He jumped on the back of a tractor heading to a meeting about bonded labour. He heard a man explain that what the factory owners were doing was illegal under Pakistani law. When the man asked if anyone wanted to speak, Iqbal stepped up to the microphone.
He never stopped.
He helped free over 3,000 children from bonded labour in carpet factories across Pakistan. He completed five years of schoolwork in three. He spoke at international conferences in Sweden and the United States. He told a room full of adults in Boston that he wanted to become a lawyer so he could free every enslaved child in Pakistan. He was 12 years old. Brandeis University offered him a full scholarship and said they would be waiting for him.
When asked why he would return to Pakistan when he knew his life was in danger, he said his mission was more important than his life.
On Easter Sunday 1995, he was shot in the back while cycling home. He was hit by over 120 shotgun pellets. His cousins were barely touched. He was the target.
His funeral was attended by 800 people. In the days that followed, 3,000 people marched through Lahore. Half of them were under the age of 12.
After his death, a group of seventh-graders from a school in Massachusetts where Iqbal had once spoken raised $25,000 and built a school in his name in Pakistan. April 16 is now recognised as the International Day Against Child Slavery. The United States Congress created the Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labour in his honour. It is still given out every year.
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