SHIKARPUR: The parents and other relatives of an 11-year-old boy, whose body was found floating in Sindh Wah (irrigation channel) within the limits of the New Faujdari police station late on Friday night, claimed on Tuesday that he was actually murdered by four suspects.

They told the police they wanted the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) inserted in the FIR.

Three of the suspects were arrested but a fourth remained at large.

The victim’s father said his son was accompanying the four suspects when they were bathing in the water channel.

Quoting the information the family received after the boy’s burial without a post-mortem examination, he alleged that his son was subjected to criminal assault by the suspects before he was murdered.

He said it was only after intervention of the area’s elected representatives that the police registered the case.

The victim’s relatives also held a press conference at the local press club on Tuesday and demanded arrest of the main suspect.

They also demanded exhumation of the body for a post-mortem to reach a conclusion regarding the alleged criminal assault and murder. Elders of the Bhutto community of the area Hamadullah, Abdul Khaliq, Rafique Ahmed and Mumtaz Ahmed called on SSP Kamran Nawaz in this regard.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2020