LARKANA: Relatives of two cousins, both aged around two years, who had gone missing in Lohar Colony a day before and found dead in a sewage-filled pond on Sunday, believed the children were killed before they were thrown into the pond.

Hafiz Ali Sher Jalbani said that his son Ghulam Badshah and his cousin Mushtaque went out of home to buy something from a nearby goodies’ shop on Saturday evening but did not return. “We informed police about it and kept searching for the children till late into the night but found no clue of them,” he said.

He said that on Sunday morning when he was returning home after offering Fajr prayer, he spotted two bodies floating in the sewage pond. The bodies were taken out and they were found to be warm before they were shifted to Chandka Medical College Hospital, he said.

He demanded transparent probe into the tragic incident and appealed to chief justice of Sindh High Court and other authorities concerned to serve them justice.

Larkana assistant commissioner Ahmed Ali Soomro also reached the hospital and assured the parents of justice.

The bodies were handed over to relatives after autopsy and specimen of their viscera were sent to laboratories in Lahore and Rohri to ascertain exact cause of death, said Dr Gulzar Tunio, additional medical superintendent of CMCH.

SHO of Haidri police station Sajjad Bhatti said that police were probing the incident from different angles.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2021