KARACHI, June 1: The remains of two children, seven-year-old Sajid and nine-year-old Ubaid, were finally buried by their parents in Qayyumabad graveyard on Friday evening. The two friends went missing on the evening of May 21 from their neighborhood in Christian Colony, Korangi. Their parents informed the Zaman town police who registered the complaint of their kidnapping. Subsequently, the information was passed on to the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee and the Anti-Violent Crime Cell.

On May 30, bodies of two unidentified children, stuffed in a gunny bag, were recovered in Korangi. However, it did not strike the area police that the bodies could be those of Sajid, son of Illyas Masih, and Ubaid, son of Riaz Masih.

Following their postmortem examination, the bodies were shifted to the Edhi morgue. As the bodies were in a bad shape and could not be kept for long at the morgue, they were finally buried, said an Edhi spokesman.

The family members and neighbours of the two children said they learnt about the recovery of two bodies through the newspapers on May 31.

“The family contacted the police and were directed to the Edhi Centre where photographs of the children before their burial and their clothing were identified by the family,” Pastor Denis told Dawn on behalf of the parents who were too scared to talk to the media following the ordeal they had been through.

On Friday, the bodies were exhumed from the Edhi graveyard and were brought to their houses in Christian Colony, Korangi. Later, the bodies were taken for burial to a graveyard near Qayyumabad where the funeral prayers were offered.

Denis said Ubaid was a student of Class IV and Sajid was studying in KG-1. They were kidnapped from the main Korangi Road located in front of the Christian Colony on the evening of May 21.

“On that day he asked his father that he would eat minced meat. After having his supper, Ubaid went out saying that he was going for games and never returned,” Ubaid’s aunt Sobia said, sobbing.

As Ubaid remembered the telephone number of his father’s workplace, he supposedly gave the number to the kidnappers who made a call. Since Riaz was not available there, they left their cell number.

When the call was returned, a kidnapper introduced himself as Rehman Dakait. He said, “We have purchased your children for Rs1.5 million” and demanded two million rupees for their release.

However, negotiations continued and the ransom amount was fixed at Rs0.3 million. But after then, the kidnappers switched off the cell phone, Pastor Denis told Dawn.

CPLC Chief Sharfuddin Memon told Dawn that the AVCC had nabbed a suspect on the family’s suspicion who had confessed that he kidnapped the children on the directives of a person who gave him Rs5,000 and a DVD player.

However, he said, the condition of the bodies suggested that the children were killed the day they were kidnapped. He said that efforts were being made to arrest the mastermind.