GUJRAT: A 15-year-old son of a local trader was kidnapped allegedly by a prayer leader (Pesh Imam) in Dhakki gate locality in A-division police precincts.
Reports said trader Muhammad Sultan lodged a complaint with the local police alleging that his son Hassan Sultan had gone to meet Qari Waleed, a prayer leader in a nearby mosque of his street, after the suspect called him on Oct 5.
He said when his son did not return for a long time, he started a search and tried to call him on the cell phone, but he did not answer the calls.
Later on, he said, some people told him that his son was seen being accompanied by the cleric along with two unidentified suspects in the area, and since then whereabouts of his son are not known to him.
Police have registered a case against one nominated and two unidentified suspects under section 365 of Pakistan Penal Code on the report of the complainant and started investigation.
It is learnt that police have also got the footage of close circuit television cameras installed in the area in which the missing boy was accompanied by the suspect.
Family sources said police have been conducting raids at different locations in Kotla, Sialkot and Azad Kashmir, Bhimbher district, to trace and arrest the suspects with no clue so far.
The missing boy is the nephew of a local journalist who has sought his safe recovery.
Locals alleged that the cleric had also been involved in the physical torture of the students while teaching them in the mosque, as he was forbidden several times by the parents.
Around a couple of weeks back, Saddar Kharian police had detained a seminary teacher and his son for allegedly torturing a five-year-old boy to death.
Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2025.
