LAHORE: Two minor boys were recovered dead under mysterious circumstances from a Racecourse Club pool meant for horses in Kot Lakhpat here on Friday.
Eight-year-old Shafaqat and Abdul Rehman of Baba Fareed Colony left their house on Thursday afternoon to bring water from the filtration plant of the Racecourse Club.
When they did not turn up to their houses till late on Thursday night, their families started a search for them in the locality and also made announcements through loudspeaker of mosques.
On Friday morning, the Racecourse Club administration alerted the police when the boys were found dead in the pool. The Rescue personnel shifted the bodies to the Jinnah Hospital morgue for autopsy.
Shafaqat’s father Ishfaq, a cook at a roadside eatery, said he returned to the house late on Thursday and his wife told him that Shafaqat had gone to the workshop but did not turn up.
He said he took it lightly and went to sleep because he was not feeling well. On Friday morning, his wife again told him that the boy was missing and she also checked on him from her relatives but he did not went there.
“I along with my elder son went to the police station to lodge a missing report. Meanwhile, I heard an announcement from a mosque’s loudspeaker that two boys were recovered dead from the pool of the Racecourse Club.”
He said they rushed to the spot where a large number of people were gathered and identified the body of Shafaqat.
Abdul Rehman’s mother said she was not present at her house when her son went with Shafaqat to bring water from the filtration plant.
She said when her son did not return till late on Thursday night she along with her brother started his search. She said several announcements on mosque loudspeaker were also made, but they found no traces of the boy.
She said on Friday morning a missing report was lodged with the police station and, only after about an hour, they were called to identify the bodies recovered from the pool.
Racecourse secretary
Shehzad Akhtar said horse trainers found the bodies of two minor boys in the pool.
He said the area people came to the racecourse to fetch water from the filtration plant.
He said the depth of the pool was 16 feet where horses were trained adding that no-one knew when the boys came there.
He said no guard was deployed to look after the horse pool.
Model Town SP Mustanser Feroze said that bodies were shifted to the morgue for the post-mortem examination and its report was being awaited.
He said the doctors did not find any external bruises on the bodies and boys, not knowing about the depth of the pool, might have jumped into it and drowned.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the incident and sought a report from police high-ups.
Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2016
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