Seven-year-old boy raped, murdered

After killing the minor, the suspect threw the body into a 40-foot-deep pit

MULTAN:

A seven-year-old boy was raped and strangled by a man over a dispute with the boy’s father in Chah Meharwala area of Multan.

After killing the boy, the suspect threw the minor’s body into a 40-foot-deep pit. Police arrested the accused, Jahanzeb alias Mina, and started investigation into the case in which the accused had made some shocking disclosures.

Multan CPO Khurram Shehzad Haider told a press conference that the police traced the case of abduction, rape and murder within 24 hours of the incident, but the aspects that came to light during the investigation into the case were shocking.

CPO Khurram Shehzad Haider said that on April 16, Muhammad Kashif, a truck driver, informed the New Multan Police Station that his seven-year-old son had gone with his mother to his maternal uncle Mohsin's house in Chah Meharwala.

He left home at 6pm but did not return. The boy’s father surmised that his son had been kidnapped.

Police reached the spot and reviewed the situation and on April 17 a case was registered at the New Multan Police Station under Section 363 TPP. Meanwhile, police found the tortured body of the child in the pit in Chah Meharwala.

Police recovered the body and conducted an autopsy, which revealed that the child had been strangled after being raped.

According to the CPO, they formed a team under the supervision of SSP (Operation) Hussam bin Iqbal and SSP (Investigation) Faraz Ahmed.

The team arrested the accused Jahanzeb within 24 hours.

According to the preliminary investigation, the accused Jahanzeb and Muhammad Kashif, the father of the slain boy, were close friends and the accused used to visit his house frequently. However, a few days ago, Kashif’s and Jahanzeb’s friendship had fallen out.

Out of resentment over this development, the accused abducted the child from outside his uncle's house and raped and killed him.

According to the CPO, the accused Jahanzeb was a conductor of the truck driven by the father of the slain child and they had been working together for over a year and a half.

The CPO told a press conference that the accused went home after the murder and told his mother all that had happened.

CPO Multan also announced certificates of appreciation and cash prizes for all the police officers and personnel who dealt with the case.

In June last year, a four-year-old girl had been abducted and then murdered in Khanewal.

The body was found in a sack in fields. The incident was reported to the police, but they allegedly did not register a case for the next four days.

The deputy superintendent of police and SHO of the area were suspended after the then Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar took notice of the incident. The four-year-old child had been playing with other minor girls in Azizabad, a suburban locality of Khanewal, when she was abducted by an unknown person.

The slain girl’s father Nadeem reported the incident to Kahna police the same day, and her mutilated body was found in a sack in fields near Basti Azizabad four days later.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2022.