RAWALPINDI, March 28: The six-and-a-half-year-old son of a policeman, who went missing while going to a mosque on Thursday, was found dead on the bank of a nullah in Dhoke Banaris here on Monday, the parents of the victim and police said.

Abu Bakr, a prep class student at Cantonment Public School, left for the mosque to learn the holy Quran but did not return.

His father told Dawn that he was on duty when his wife informed him after sunset that Abu Bakr had gone missing. He rushed home and started a search for his loved one.

After more than 10 hours, the father of the missing boy lodged a complaint with the R.A. Bazaar police.

A resident of the area on Monday spotted the body which turned out to be that of Abu Bakr. Later, the police shifted the body to the District Headquarters Hospital for autopsy.

According to the preliminary police investigation, there were no torture marks on the body; however, the cause of his death will be ascertained after the chemical examiner's report is received. The boy's father said the site where his son's body was found was not more than 100 metres away from his house. He said there was little chance that his son had drowned as the nullah was not more than one-and-a-half-foot deep.