n their efforts to leave no room for the accused to get a clean chit from the court, the Lahore police recently added special sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the first information report (FIR) lodged against the killers of a minor who had also brutally tortured the boy’s brother.

According to reports, Kamran, 10, and his brother, Rizwan, 6, who came from Bahawalpur district, were employed as domestic workers at the house of Nasrullah, a senior citizen, in DHA, Phase 3, Lahore. The day after Eid ul Azha, the children were caught stealing some food from the refrigerator. This angered Nasrullah to the extent that he allegedly brutally beat up the boys and stabbed Kamran to death.

The police learnt about the gory incident through an emergency call from a private hospital that had received the casualties. The doctors informed the police that the body of the deceased bore torture marks and that the condition of the other boy was precarious.

As per hospital records, Nasrullah and his son, Mehmood-ul-Hassan, brought the children to the hospital.

Talking to TNS, DIG Investigations, Kamran Adil, says, “The police are dealing with it as a special case. Such heinous crimes cannot be tolerated. We are in the process of preparing a strong challan against the accused.”

He says that the FIR has been registered against five persons including the prime suspect, Nasrullah, and his wife, Shabana.

Adil says the police have “added two sections on human trafficking — Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018-III, and Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2018-IV) in the FIR.

“This is not standard practice,” he says. “It is for the first time that we have added some sections linked to acts of cruelty with children.”

The DIG says “another special aspect of the case [which] is that the police have become the complainant, on account of our past experience with such cases in which the family of the victim either struck a deal or reached a compromise with the accused. Since the police cannot be intimidated or expected to compromise, this will pave the way for fair prosecution.”

“Another aspect of the case is that the police have become the complainant, on account of past experience with such cases in which the family of the victim reached a compromise with the accused.” — DIG Operations, Kamran Adil

The police have also been in contact with the Prosecution Department that has helped them build what they believe is a strong case against the accused based on circumstantial evidence and eyewitness accounts. In the words of Kamran Adil, the police are “carrying out investigations along scientific lines, which means collecting finger prints, testing DNA and geo-fencing.”

In the entire episode, the role of the children’s father remains a mystery, as he is not said to have contacted the police.

The police have learnt that the prime accused, Nasrullah, wished to marry the little boys’ 7-year-old sister. The girl, ‘A’, was recovered by the police and Nasrullah apprehended in a raid carried out in Bahawalpur district. It then transpired that Irfan, the father of the unfortunate children and a resident of Hyderabad, Sindh, would often visit Abul Hassan, another son of Nasrullah, who claimed to be a pir (spiritual leader). On Hassan’s direction, Irfan willingly gave away his minor daughter in a “spiritual ceremony” that was organised at the accused’s house. The police got hold of a recording of Hassan’s phone conversations, and were able to connect the dots.

The police have tracked down Abul Hassan in Bahawalpur where he was hiding. The police have also moved a local magistrate, seeking orders for the postmortem examination of the deceased boy and permission for his burial.

Till the filing of this article, the police had also traced the location of Irfan, somewhere in Hyderabad.

The writer is a senior journalist and can be reached at ahsanzia155@gmail.com