KARACHI: The body of a 13-year-old boy, who was tortured, raped and murdered, was found in Bahadurabad on Thursday, police said.

They said an unidentified body of a child, aged around 12-13 years, was found lying near Alamgir Hospital. It was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said that the boy was brought dead to the JPMC. “His body showed marks of severe torture; the autopsy findings are highly suggestive of rape; initial findings suggest asphyxial death,” opined Dr Syed.

However, a report on the cause of his death is kept reserved till reports from toxicology and histopathology are received.

DNA and other samples have been collected for identification and profiling and cross-matching.

Quoting Bahadurabad police officials and an ambulance service driver, the police surgeon said that a woman came to a private hospital in Bahadurabad by car and asked the ambulance driver outside the hospital that a boy was lying on a road.

Later, the police acquired closed-circuit television camera footage in the area which showed that the woman brought the ambulance driver to her sedan to take out the body of the boy from the car.

She asked the ambulance driver to take the boy to the hospital and while following him, she disappeared.

The ambulance driver informed the police about the episode and gave the body into police custody. The police took it to the JPMC.

The police surgeon said that there were severe torture marks all over the body -- on the face, back and hands -- caused by some hard and blunt object.

The police officials said they had traced out the owner of the car and got him identified.

“Raids have been carried out at the address of the car’s owner,” said East-SSP Syed Abdul Raheem Shirazi.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2022