By Saleem Mubarak
LAHORE: A teenage egg seller boy was brutally murdered by the unidentified assailant(s), and despite the heinous nature of the crime, the poor grieving father, Muhammad Hafeez, refused to register a case.
This tragic incident took place in Chak No 270-RB, Majhi Wal, Dijkot, Faisalabad, in the remit of the Dijkot police station.
Teenager Goes Missing After Leaving Home to Sell Eggs
Reports said that 13-year-old boy, Qadeer, had left his home on Sunday night to sell eggs. However, he did not return home and his body was found on the outskirts of his village early this morning (Monday).
Area people claimed that the family of the deceased boy reported his disappearance to the police. However, the police turned a blind eye and merely filed a report about the missing child. They said it was the primary duty of the police to launch a search to trace him, but authorities took no action.
How police came to know
The police claimed that an unknown person called and informed them that a boy’s body was lying in a deserted place. Upon receiving the information, the police rushed to the spot and recovered the body, whose face was covered with a plastic shopping bag.
The victim boy was subjected to rape.
SSP Operations Tariq Mehboob, and SP Iqbal Town, Abid Zafar along with other policemen also visited the spot.
While talking to the police, the father of the deceased refused to register a case, citing that he had no enmity with anyone.
Dijkot is an area where a house wife was subjected to rape by a robber in Sharif Pura, a couple of days ago.
She was at home along with her children when robbers barged into her home. The robbers looted about Rs 5,000 and a mobile phone from the home of the victim lady whose husband is a truck driver.
Police claimed that the rapist of the woman has been arrested and efforts are on to arrest his accomplices.
Father Refuses to Register Case
Ahtshamul Haq, a broadcast journalist, talking to Grandlines.pk said that the poor father might have swallowed his pride and refused to register a case against the criminals who killed his son, fearing he would not be able to foot the bill for the legal battle.
He said we see daily how the police put people through the wringer rather than dispensing justice sensing their pains.
He said one could check that the majority of the people prefer to remain tight-lipped about mobile snatching, cattle theft, and other common crimes. After all, victims know that reporting the crime to police often means opening a can of worms.
However, it is painful and surprising that a father refused to press charges against the criminals involved in the brutal killing of his beloved son. This refusal indicates that people are losing trust in the current system due to its lengthy process and the tarnished image of the police.
Sensing the gravity of the issue, the police, after a couple of hours of hard work, managed to convince Hafeez, the father of the deceased, to register the case to help police net the criminals, he said.
Dijkot police registered a case against unidentified persons under section 302 and 376 of the PPC with no arrest so far.
The police spokesperson said that the parents chose not to file a formal complaint, which is why no case was filed on being informed of the incident.
The body has been sent to the hospital for postmortem. As of now, the cause of death remains unclear, and investigations continue, police said.
