SWABI, Sept 18: The mutilated body of a 12-year-old boy, who was kidnapped a week ago, was found in maize fields here on Sunday.Zuhir Khan, a student of grade VI at Fazal Ali Model School Kotha, was abducted on Sept 12 when he was on his way to his grandfather's house. Arshad Ahmad, the father of the boy, returned from Algeria, where he works, soon after the incident to meet the demands of kidnappers.

However, he said that they were not contacted by the abductors to demand ransom or put any other condition for release of his son. He said that motive behind the killing of his son was not known as they had no enmity with anyone.

Police said that the bereaved family was informed by local farmers about the presence of the body in the fields. “The body was mutilated and acid was sprinkled on it to hide the identity of the boy,” they added.

The gruesome incident has sent a shockwave across the district and people belonging to different walks of life have demanded immediate arrest of the culprits involved in the crime. POLIO DRIVE:

A three-day anti-polio drive will be kicked off here on Monday but increase in refusal cases has disturbed the officials of both health department and district administration, according to sources.

EPI district coordinator Dr Raiz, when contacted, said that they were striving to handle the refusal issue as well-coordinated efforts were being made to convince parents to administer anti-polio drops to their children.

“Sometimes refusal cases are reported from one area and sometimes from another. We have even engaged patwaris, union council secretaries, employees of both local government and health and police officials to make the campaign a success,” he added.

He said that two cases of polio were reported from the district in 2009. Majority of the refusal cases were reported from Malikabad area, where army had conducted an operation on February 2, 2010 against militants.

“We handled Malikabad after operation very tactfully and educated people about the importance of the campaign,” said a health officer.

Dr Raiz said that 17 union councils of the district were on the polio risk list. He said the total target children were 75,828, including the children living in two Afghan refugee camps.

He sought help of people to eradicate polio from the district completely.