CHITRAL, May 20: Ihteshamul Haq has a burning desire to go to school but the fear of being teased by students is forcing this markedly short boy from Warijun village of Upper Chitral to stay home.

The 15-year-old, whose height is 27 inches and weight seven kilogrammes, suffers from achondroplasia, a disorder of bone growth that causes dwarfism.

He told Dawn on Saturday that he had a very strong desire to be enrolled in a school but was out of school only because he feared that his classmates and other students of the schools would make fun of him due to his short stature.

He said his village had no school for special children.

The boy is reported to be the only dwarf person in the entire district.

According to his father, Zar Afas, Haq has no other disability and is mentally and physically healthy.

He said the boy’s body had stopped growing when he was one and a half years old.

He said he took the boy to many health facilities in the area but to no avail as doctors told him that the disease was incurable.

The boy said he was a cricket lover and spent most of his time playing cricket with his brothers and relatives.

He said he knew a lot about the cricket and got emotional when the national team faced India. The boy said he had one brother and two sisters but his father loved him the most for nice behaviour.

Local child specialist Dr Gulzar Ahmad confirmed that the boy was an achondroplasia sufferer.

“He’s a rare case of achondroplasia in Chitral and as per my information, he is the shortest person in the district,” he said.