Police in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir today exhumed the body of four-year-old boy as part of a probe to ascertain the cause of his death after his family claimed that he was killed by a supernatural "jinn".
Four-year-old Ahmad went missing about two-weeks ago in Somal village in the thickly forested Chilas area from a spring where he had accompanied his mother in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region of PoK.
Police official Abdul Jabbar said that the family believed the he was whisked away by supernatural creatures and had even called an exorcist in an attempt to bring the boy back to life.
The family also claimed that the "jinn" produced the boy twice when the exorcist was casting a spell but each time he again disappeared.
As the exorcist failed in his mission, the relatives found the body of Ahmad with marks of torture on Friday from woods and buried it without registering a case of murder.
The matter would have ended but it was reported in the media and came to the notice of police chief Zafar Iqbal Awan who ordered a probe to unearth the cause of the boy's death.
"Police accompanied by doctors and court officials today exhumed the body for postmortem," Jabbar said.
He said the family still believes that the boy was killed by a "jinn" but police are trying to ascertain the actual cause of the death.
Gilgit-Baltistan bordering China has many high mountain peaks which attract tourists and climbers every year.
The region is economically and socially backward like other remote regions of Pakistan and many people harbour superstitions about mythological and supernatural creatures like jinns, ghosts and fairies.
