LAHORE: Scores of residents of Raiwind on Friday lodged a protest against the rape-cum-murder of a 13-year-old boy who was trapped through the online game PUBG.

Two other children of the same area who went ‘missing’ with the victim after being trapped by unidentified suspects through the game were still untraced.

The body of the boy was found from Nankana Sahib, two days after he was kidnapped from Pind Arrayan of Raiwind City.

Sharing the information, the protesters said the deceased was among the three children of the same village who used to play PUBG. They feared that all these children were trapped and then kidnapped by the mafia playing the online game for ulterior motives.

They blamed the police for not timely reacting to the complaint of the victim boy’s family who had reported his ‘mysterious disappearance’ and appealed for his recovery.

They further alleged the senior police officers also turned a deaf ear to their repeated requests, which ultimately led to the painful rape-cum-murder of the boy.

Two fellows of the victim still missing

Ghulam Hussain told the media his 13-year-old nephew (name withheld) went to a shop on Jan 13, saying he would come back soon but didn’t return home for many hours.

He said he immediately lodged a complaint with the Jia Bagga police check post and gave the names of two suspects who were in contact with his nephew on the online game, suspecting that they might have kidnapped him.

Mr Hussain further said that he had also told police that the suspects nominated in the complaint had taken away his nephew and two other children to Sheikhupura for bad intention.

On finding the police officials unmoved by his pleas, he went to the offices of the senior police officials of the division but no one took the matter serious and launched a conventional inquiry.

The protesters blamed police for the murder of the boy and demanded Chief Minister Usman Buzdar take notice of the police negligence that led to the horrific incident.

Police shifted the body of the boy to the city morgue for autopsy and added some sections of the PPC to the already registered kidnap case.

The police officials claimed that a team had been dispatched for the arrest of the suspected killers.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2021