Murder most foul: Boy found hanged against border fence

He had gone to get food from a restaurant and never returned

LAHORE: A 12-year-boy, resident of Govind village, who had gone missing on Saturday, was found murdered late on Sunday. He had been hanged from a trench on the India-Pakistan border. 

Salim, the boy’s father, said Bilal had just passed his grade one exams. On Saturday, he went to visit his aunt who lived in a neighbourhood near his house. At around 10:30am, she asked him to go to a nearby restaurant to buy some food. He did not return.

The family set out to look for Bilal but couldn’t find him. On Sunday evening, his cousin, who was grazing in a field, saw Bilal hanging from a wire along the trench. Thinking he was still alive, he called out to Bilal who didn’t respond. His cousin ran back to Bilal’s aunt and told her that he might have been electrocuted.

Neighbours and relatives ran to the area and found Bilal hanging from the trench. “Our family went into hysterics at the sight of the brutal murder,” Salim said.

Hadiara police arrived at the scene and took the body to a morgue for an autopsy. They registered an FIR against unidentified suspects.

“Three days ago, he was asking me to buy books for grade two so he could study them and be ahead of his class fellows. Who knew he would never get to sit in his next class,” Salim said, dissolving into tears.

He said that he had no enmity with anyone and confirmed that Bilal had not been molested. He appealed to the authorities to bring his son’s murders to justice.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2015.