ISLAMABAD: A teenage boy from Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been arrested on suspicion of killing two young brothers in Rawalpindi city, whose bodies were found dumped along I.J. Principal Road in the jurisdiction of Islamabad police on Sunday.

Abdul Ghaffar, the father of Noman Nadeem, 14, and Asad Nadeem, 8, complained to Banni police that on Saturday evening he sent his sons to Khayaban-i-Sir Syed to fetch some money from a relative.

On reaching the area the boys called their father and informed him that they did not find the relative at home. Abdul Ghaffar asked his sons to come back.

This was their last contact with the family as after that their mobile phone was found switched off.

On the complaint of Mr Ghaffar, a resident of Imambara Mohallah, the Banni police registered a kidnapping case.

However, on Sunday, bodies of the two brothers were found on a greenbelt along I.J. Principal Road in the limits of Sabzi Mandi police in Islamabad.

Noman, 14, and his younger brother went missing from Rawalpindi on Saturday evening

The station house officer (SHO) of Sabzi Mandi, Asjad Mehmood, told Dawn that some passersby spotted the bodies and informed the police.

“We shifted the bodies to Pims, which, after postmortems, were handed over to the relatives of the deceased,” he said, adding that investigations into the case would be carried out in collaboration with Rawalpindi police.

When contacted, a doctor at Pims requesting not to be identified said there were six bullet wounds on the body of the eight-year-old boy and three bullet wounds on the body of his brother. He said the victims were shot in the head and chest.

“It seems both children were killed early Sunday. Samples have been collected from the bodies which will be sent to the laboratory to ascertain if the boys were molested,” he said.

Mohammad Aamir Qureshi, an uncle of the deceased, told Dawn that the victims were students of class VIII and III.

He said W.K., a 17-year-old boy from Mardan district, who used to sell animals at Banni Chowk, had developed friendship with Noman.

He said on Saturday the suspect called Noman and asked him to meet him, saying he was going abroad.

“On Saturday, the elder brother informed his parents that his friend W.K. was going to UAE so he was going to meet him,” he said.

Initially, the boy said his friend had requested him to meet him at the airport at 6pm but later he asked him to come at Chungi No 4. So both brothers went to meet him at around 11am and did not return.

“At 9pm, we informed Banni police and also checked at different places but did not find a clue to the boys. Initially, the mobile phone of the elder brother was not responding but after 1:30am it was found switched off,” he said.

“On Sunday morning, the family members, relatives and friends again started searching for them. At around 3pm, a private TV channel ran a ticker that the body of an eight-year-old boy was found from the limits of Sabzi Mandi police.

“I rushed to the police station where an official told me that in fact two bodies had been found and shifted to Pims.”

In reply to a question, Mr Aamir said the elder brother was a friend of a teenager who used to sell animals at Banni market.

“We had advised the child not to have relations with the boy who was almost 17 years old.”

“The elder brother once told his family members that W.K. had threatened him that he would shoot him if he severed friendship with him. So after the boys disappeared, we decided to trace W.K. but learnt that he was in Katlang tehsil of Mardan and had not gone abroad. A police team was sent to Mardan which arrested him,” he said.

Jalal Ali, a friend of the boys’ family, told Dawn that the 14-year-old boy was physically strong so there was a possibility that the suspect was not alone when he kidnapped and killed him along with his brother.

“I suspect the children were molested as one of them was shot in the chest but there was no bullet mark on his shirt,” he said.

However, the Pims doctor told Dawn that he had observed some bullet marks on the shirts of both children.

Mr Jalal said the father of the deceased owned a meat shop near Bara Market and had three sons and two daughters.

Police investigating officer, Sub-Inspector Farrukh Rashid, said the body of Noman bore signs of torture while his younger brother was shot in the head, chest and abdomen.

Published in Dawn, November 24th , 2014