MUZAFFARGARH: One of the three children kidnapped on Dec 8 from the limits of Khangarh police was found killed in crop fields on Wednesday in crops, and another was found alive nearby.

The police stated that Muhammad Bilal allegedly kidnapped three children of Fiaz Bhutta from Khangarh’s Mauza Gery Wahin and took them to some undisclosed location.

According to the first information report, Bhutta told the Khangarh police that Bilal, who was his relative, had kidnapped his three children — seven-year-old Ali Hassan, one-and-a-half-year-old Hafsa Bibi, and three-year-old Abdullah - when they were playing outside their house.

The police registered a kidnap case on Dec 8, while on Wednesday, the body of Abdullah was found near his house in crop fields, and Ali Hassan was recovered by the police alive.

District Police Officer Syed Hasnain Haider visited the crime scene. The Khangarh police were busy finding Hafsa after suspect Bilal was arrested. Sources said that when the police interrogated him, Bilal tried to die by suicide and feigned being mentally unstable.

The police said that he was shifted to the hospital for treatment, and the police team was at the spot of Mouza Gery Wahin Khangarh to find Hafsa.

According to the minor, Ali Hassan, who was recovered alive, Bilal killed Abdullah with a stick and knife on the day of the kidnapping, and later, he also strangled his sister Hafsa and killed her. During the search operation, the police have also recovered the skull, stick, and clothes of Abdullah from the sugarcane field near Chamrowali.

On Thursday, the police started a search operation but failed to recover Hafsa, while the police claimed that its investigation team was busy investigating whether the accused had cooked the meat of children and consumed it, with some reportedly distributed in the local shrine at Jaal Wala, as stated by Ali Hassan.

The DPO said that the police were busy checking the shrine and people and investigating the incident.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023