RAWALPINDI: The police have added a murder section (302 PPC) to the kidnapping case of a four-year-old boy, Arshman, who had been missing for about two months before his body was found in a pond in Rawat on Saturday.

“The boy’s body was between a week and 10 days old, but it wasn’t two months old. However, the actual circumstances in which the boy was killed will be known after the final postmortem report is received,” as per the police and the initial postmortem examination report.

A senior police official told Dawn that after the murder section was added to the case, the police had started an investigation in light of the initial report by the doctor.

He said the police had also been asking the residents of the surrounding area regarding the disappearance of the boy. However, the cause of the boy’s death would be clear after the forensic science agency’s report is received.

Initial report rules out drowning, suggests body less than two weeks old

The official said that since the child had gone missing, the police had been working on the case along with the SP Investigation, but nothing was found from the place, where the body was discovered, during the initial search.

The doctors’ opinion from the appearance of the body was that the body was between 12 to 14 days old because it could not remain in such a condition after being in water for two months.

Meanwhile, CPO Khalid Hamdani directed the police to investigate the case by keeping all aspects in mind, including the kidnapping and the murder.

Arshman was laid to rest in a graveyard beside his father’s grave in Tarlai Kalan, Islamabad, on Sunday. “You should have shown me only the feet of my loved one,” said his uncle while quoting the mother of Arshman.

On the day Arshman Akhtar went missing, the incident was reported to the Rawat police, but the mobile phone service in the area was not available, which made the police unable to conduct geo-fencing. On November 24, a case was registered on the complaint of the boy’s uncle Umar Rauf.

The four-year-old went to Mohra Gad Rawat on November 23, 2024, with his mother to attend a wedding ceremony, where he went missing. After the disappearance, a door-to-door search was launched by the family and relatives but to no avail. After about two months, his body was found in a pond in the same area where he had gone missing.

Initially, it seemed that he died due to drowning, but an initial postmortem examination revealed that the body was between a week and 14 days old. After this information came to light, the police also launched a murder investigation.

On the other hand, Umar Rauf, who is also the complainant in the case, said that the boy went missing from the wedding house and was not found by the police.

The police, however, kept harassing the boy’s maternal uncles by asking for the ‘B-Form’ of the boy and also sought the marriage certificate of his mother. They allegedly harassed the child’s maternal uncles as well.

Umar Rauf was asked how it was possible that the boy had been missing for almost two months and his body was lying in a pond in the same area. He revealed that the place where the body was found was not a deserted area, and the pond was only knee-deep where the body was found.

He claimed that the police were indifferent while searching for the child. Initially, the police staff and the people of the surrounding villages made efforts to locate the missing child, adding that it was surprising to find a body at the same location. Umar Rauf said his younger brother was allegedly harassed by the police.

Moreover, the maternal uncles, while contesting the police’s stance, said that when the boy’s body was found, the tongue was clenched between his teeth.

The police said the child drowned in water while playing, but if he drowned while playing, then why was his tongue clenched like that, Mr Rauf asked.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2025