TOBA TEK SINGH: Additional District and Sessions Judge Masood Ahmad Warraich handed down on Friday 10-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs1.4 million to a youth who kidnapped a three-year-old child on Oct 7, 2019, and strangled and threw him in crops believing that he was dead.

Hasan, son of Abdul Rehman, of Bakshi Park locality, was playing outside when he disappeared.

The CCTV camera of a bank showed that a boy on a motorcycle passed by with a minor baby on his bike after a few minutes of the abduction.

Police launched a search operation and took into custody 17-year-old Hammad of the same locality who confessed to kidnapping the boy. He said he loved the aunt of the child (sister of child’s father) and wanted to marry her but his proposal was turned down. So, he kidnapped the child and took him to Chak 323-JB located on Toba-Gojra road where he strangled and dumped the child in a sugarcane field.

The police later found the child alive even after the passage of nine hours. He was hardly breathing when he was shifted to the DHQ Hospital in TT Singh. He was administered oxygen before being shifted to Faisalabad’s Allied Hospital where he spent eight days.

He was brought to his home in Bakshi Park locality with police protocol and then DPO Waqar Shoaib handed him over to the family.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2021