Just three weeks into his first term at secondary school, 11-year-old Asad Khan hanged himself as it emerged he was being bullied by older students at the school.
He was found unresponsive in his bedroom shortly after 4pm on Wednesday evening by his mother after he came home from school. Ishtiaq Ahmed a former city councillor and a family friend said Asad informed his mother he was facing problems at school.
Asad’s aunt, Rehana Bibi, 34, said “Asad was just a very good, innocent child. He was so very sweet and I cannot believe he has gone alike this. This is obviously a case of bullying from the school.”
The headteacher of Beckfoot Upper Heaton, Simon Wade said: “It is with great sadness that we learnt pf the death of Asad Khan, one of the school’s newest students. THE school is united in grief. The school community is working together as students, parents and staff come to terms with these events. All our thoughts are with Asad’s family at this terribly difficult time.”
Detectives are now investigating a report that Asad was beaten up on Wednesday lunchtime in a playground, hours before he was found dead at his home. A spokesman for West Yorkshire police confirmed yesterday that the force received a report about the alleged incident on Friday.
DI Alan Flynn, of Bradford CID, who is leading the investigation has confirmed that his officers had received reports of a “bullying issue” and it was being looked into. The DI said that while bullying was not a criminal offence, detectives would examine whether there was any criminal behaviour including assault.
He said in a statement “There is a lot of ongoing work to clarify what was going on in this young lad’s life prior to his death. We are looking for information from the community and we are setting up a specialist email address for the public so they can provide any information or evidence, including visual, that could assist us in understanding what has occurred.”
On Monday, an inquest into Asad’s death was told he had been reluctant to attend his new secondary school. Simon Holmes, the coroner’s officer, told the hearing: “He was a fit, healthy, sociable and chatty boy. Recently he’d started a new school, he was reluctant to attend that school.” Martin Fleming, the Bradford coroner, said the death had happened in “heartbreaking circumstances” before he adjourned the inquest to a provisional date of 24 January.
