RAWALPINDI: Two boys were killed during firing in the air in a wedding ceremony in Dhoke Khabba Thursday night, the police said.

Mohammad Usman, 12, and his friend Saad Rasheed, 13, were participating in the wedding of Mohammad Ajmal in their neighbourhood when someone from the wedding party started firing into the air to celebrate at about 10:30pm.

The boys were shot in the head during the aerial firing. They were moved to the Benazir Bhutto Hospital where they died after midnight.

The father of Usman, Mohammad Waheen lodged a murder case with the Waris Khan police in which he said he was in Saddar at the time for work when he received a call in which he was informed that his son and another neighbourhood boy had been injured during celebratory fire.

The bodies of the victims were handed over to their parents after post-mortems were conducted.

Celebratory firing has been banned by the provincial government and the police have been directed to strictly implement the ban.

A police investigating officer told Dawn no one has been nominated in the FIR lodged by the victim’s father and that the police will investigate the groom and other people who participated in the wedding.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2018