June 01, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

MULTAN, May 31: An 11-year-old sodomy victim died here at Nishtar Hospital late on Friday night, six days after the incident.

Aleem Irfan, a resident of Chak 105/10-R of Jahanian tehsil (Khanewal district), was grazing his goats in the fields of landowner Muhammad Shabbir when Shabbir’s son Amjad Imran and his friend Shamsher Ali caught him and sodomised him.

The accused later left unconscious Irfan in the fields and fled. Irfan was admitted to the Jahanian tehsil hospital, from where doctors referred him to Nishtar Hospital on Friday, where he died the same day.

Irfan’s body was handed to his family after a post-mortem from the Jahanian tehsil hospital.

In the meantime, Irfan’s father contacted Jahanian police to lodge an FIR against the accused, but police officials refused to register a case against the accused and told the plaintiff to reconcile with the accused. The police did not even care for the medical examination that showed the boy was sodomised.

It was only after Irfan’s death that the police registered a case against the accused under section 302 and 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Policeman Muhammad Ashraf claimed that both accused had been arrested.

Mango festival: An international mango conference and festival will begin here on July 18, District Coordination Officer Fazeel Asghar said on Saturday.

Speaking at a meeting in connection with arrangements for the event, Mr Asghar said delegations from Australia, India, the Philippines and Mexico would participate in the festival and conference, which would continue till July 20. He said that on this occasion mango experts would also present their research papers on mango production, marketing and packing.