Lahore: Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province shot dead four suspects of rape and murder of a five-year-old boy in an encounter late on Wednesday night, officials said on Thursday.
According to the FIR, two vendors – Umair (18) and Abbas (20) – allegedly kidnapped a five-year-old boy in Faisalabad, some 150-km from Lahore, while he was playing outside his house last week.
It said both suspects took the boy to a deserted place and raped him along with their two accomplices.
The FIR said they killed the boy after committing rape and dumped his body in an open plot.
After Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar took notice of the incident a special team headed by the Faisalabad police chief was constituted that managed to arrest the culprits.
Faisalabad police in a statement issued on Thursday said that they arrested the suspects Umair and Abbas and their two accomplices who confessed to their crime.
Police said on Wednesday night a police team was taking the suspects to the crime scene when eight armed men attacked it.
“The armed men opened fire on police party which was returned and in the crossfire all four suspects were killed,” they said, adding the armed men managed to flee taking advantage of darkness.
The victim boy’s father has thanked the police and the chief minister “for providing the family swift justice.”
Earlier, the family had staged a demonstration in Faisalabad to arrest the kidnappers of the boy.
