Lahore : A 14-year-old boy, who was kidnapped and sexually abused by three men, committed suicide after police in Pakistan’s Punjab province refused to help and instead demanded Rs 50,000 to register a case, the victim’s father said.
Muhammad Akram was kidnapped by three men while he was returning from his workshop in the Rahim Yar Khan district, some 450 kilometres from Lahore, said his father Malik Iqbal. Iqbal said the three men sexually abused his son for two days after giving him intoxicants, and later threw him near his house.
He said the family searched for Akram and informed police after they could not locate him. But they refused to help.
On Wednesday, Iqbal said his son was dumped unconscious near the house.
“We reported the matter to Head Tallaywala check post and sought registration of a case against the suspects. But the police officials demanded Rs 50,000 to register a case against the suspects,” he said.
“My son, who was already in trauma, could not bear the stress and humiliation…and jumped before a goods train yesterday,” the distressed father said.
The family sat on a protest, with the body, on Rahim Yar Khan-Bahawalpur Road and blocked it for several hours. Senior police officers reached the spot and assured action against the culprits and police officials responsible for not registering the FIR.
They also sacked the check-post in-charge Imtiaz Ali and arrested him under section 155-C of the Police Order of 2002.
An FIR has been registered against the suspects under sections 266, 377 and 322 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The incident has come days after Punjab police arrested 16 suspects for allegedly sexually abusing more than 280 children in Kasur district, some 50 kilometres from here.
The scandal is being termed as Pakistan’s biggest child sex abuse scandal.
M Zulquernain
