ISLAMABAD: An 11-year-old boy was found dead in a village on Tuesday, and police claimed the cause of death was suicide by hanging.

The victim’s father, Ameer Alam, a security guard, believes his son was murdered and hanged, but the police claimed the child committed suicide.

The police said the victim wanted to visit his native town with his sister but his father denied him permission and scolded him, and asked him to go to a religious seminary.

The police claimed the boy committed suicide by hanging himself with a piece of fabric from the branch of a tree in the Mera Bari village.

They said the body was shifted to a hospital for legal processes, and the victim’s father refused an autopsy.

Mr Alam said his son Asad was murdered and hanged from the tree, which is near the village mosque. He said his son left for the seminary in Golra after breakfast, and that his body was found by villagers half a kilometre from the house who untied his body and brought it home to his wife and older son.

He said sometime after they brought the child’s body home, the police arrived and he had been “victimised” by the police since 5pm.

He said he was asked to give a statement, and then taken to the home of a magistrate for the statement, adding that he had been with the police for five hours and had “no information on what is happening at my house in my absence”.

When asked about his son’s cause of death he said the child was murdered and hanged, and added: “Now I just want to go home and bury the body.”

He said he did not allow his son to go to his native town, Khushab, with his sister. “He obeyed me and we were all happy,” he said, adding that like others, his son was reluctant to study at the seminary and asked for permission to leave.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2016