Murder case: Body of abducted 4-year-old found outside his house

The body of the four-year-old boy, Owais, kidnapped three days ago was discovered on Sunday.

FAISALABAD: The body of a four-year-old kidnapped three days ago was discovered on Sunday.

Thaana Battalia colony resident Talib’s four-year-old son Owais was kidnapped from Muhallah Feroz Shah three days ago when he went out in the street to play.

According to Talib’s neighbours they had seen the boy playing with other children hours before he was kidnapped. “We didn’t know what happened and we didn’t see anyone. When we called our children back inside Owais was missing,” said Talib’s neighbour Razia Bibi.

Talib and his wife Mumtaaz Bibi said that they searched for Owais for several hours before heading to the police station to file a kidnapping case. “The police didn’t pay us any attention and they refused to file a case,” Talib said. “We had nothing to offer the police and so they didn’t even bother to register an FIR,” he added. Talib said that he and his wife had camped outside the police station for two days trying to register an FIR for a kidnapping case regarding their son but no action was taken. When the couple came home they found their son’s body in a gunny bag thrown outside their gate the next morning.

Mumtaaz Bibi told reporters that she went outside her house to wash dishes near a tap when she saw the half open gunny bag across the street.

“The kidnappers threw his body near a trash dump.

I was outside washing dishes when I found his body,” she said. Talib and his wife called the police and a large crowd of neighbours gathered outside their house as police officials came in to investigate.

Talib, who is a cobbler, said that he had no enemies and was too poor to pay a ransom.  “I can’t imagine why anyone would kidnap my son. I have no money to give anyone and I have no enemies,” he said. Police officials have suspected the boy to have been sexually assaulted and have sent the body to the Faisalabad DHQ Hospital for an autopsy.

“Usually young children are kidnapped for child trafficking or for ransom,” Battalia Police Station House Officer (SHO) Rana Mazhar said. “This is clearly not the case here because the body was returned,” Mazhar said, adding that doctors at the hospital had confirmed the child had been strangled to death but had not yet released their report.

Talib said that he blamed the police for his son’s murder because they did not search for the child or even register a case. “I pleaded with them to look for him.

They did nothing,” he said. “Even now the police are only registering a murder case and have not added the kidnapping account,” Talib told reporters. “They waited until he was killed and sent to us before taking any action,” Mumtaz Bibi said.

SHO Mazhar said that police officials did not have any evidence to register the child’s kidnapping case a few days earlier.  “The child was missing but a day needs to pass before we can register it as a kidnapping or missing person’s case. There was no evidence he had been kidnapped,” he said.

Police officials said that they had filed a murder case and were waiting on the results of the autopsy report to proceed with the investigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2011.