Worse news: Body of kidnapped boy found from canal

Father says kidnappers wanted Rs7m through a former CM.

RAJAN PUR:

Father of a 14-year-old boy, who was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by his class fellows and later abandoned into a canal in Omar Kot area a month ago, said that the abductors had told him to pay Rs7 million ransom money through a former chief minister. 

Meanwhile three friends of the deceased were arrested on Wednesday. The police claimed they had confessed to the crime. Muhammad Zaman, a ninth class student at the Omar Kot Government Boys High School, had accompanied a friend, Khalid Qureshi, to a rural town in the tribal belt of Rajanpur district a month ago.

Zaman’s father Muhammad Aslam told police that he had received a call from the abductors who demanded Rs7 million. He said he could not raise the amount and had then contacted the police to seek help.

During initial investigation, police said, they had interrogated Khalid Qureshi, who was last seen with Zaman. They said he confessed and named three men Noor Ahmed, Kamran and Shehbaz, as his accomplices. They too were arrested but denied the allegations. Police said they later found out that the three men were innocent and released then.

Zaman’s father alleged that the police were bribed for letting the three men go. He said those who called him demanding ransom money were apparently adult men and not young boys. He said he had provided the police with the recording of the telephone conversation with the callers.

Police then arrested Majeed and Javed, whom, they said also confessed, besides Khalid Qureshi, to killing Zaman.

They said the three boys had killed Zaman three days after the kidnapping as they “could not afford to keep him”. They, however, continued calling the victim’s father to demand a ransom.

A police official said they were investigating the reason why the callers had mentioned giving money to them through the politician.

Station House Officer Pervez Ahmedani of the Omarkot police station said that the abductors had thrown Zaman’s body in a canal, which was spotted by a passer-by on Wednesday.

Zaman’s father has requested Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the incident and also requested to direct the police to re-arrest the three men who were released.  

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2012.