Abduction: Family accuse police of protecting suspects

Say they will block Khairpur Tamewali Road if arrests not made .

BAHAWALPUR: The family of a nine-year-old boy, whose body was found on February 22-three days after he was kidnapped, has vowed to take to streets against the police if the child’s kidnappers are not arrested in 24 hours.

Protesting on the DCO Chowk, the child’s family said they would organise a stage-in on Khairpur Tamewali Road and would not return until police arrested the culprits.

Muhammad Zulfiqar, father of the deceased child, accused the Inayati police of protecting the kidnappers.

He said his son went missing on February 19. He said when he went to the police station, the police were hesitant to register a case. After a few hours, he said, they registered his complaint.

He said the next day, they received a call from the kidnappers who demanded a Rs3 million ransom. He said he reported this to the police, too. He said they arrested a suspect the next day, but let him go two days later.



On February 22, he said, they found the child’s body in a field in front of the police station.

Zulfiqar said that he had named two suspects in the FIR, but the police let both of them go.

He said the police also refused to mention the ransom amount in the FIR.

Inayati station house officer said that they were investigating the case. He said the suspects were called to the police station, but were let go after police found no evidence against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2013.