LUCKNOW: The family last saw two-and-a-half-year-old Afzal alive on Sunday morning before he went out to see the Republic Day flag hoisting ceremony near his house. He pestered his mother into dressing him up quickly so that he could reach the park located between the congested lanes of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, an urban slum situated off Lohia Path in Baluadda area of Hazratganj for the ceremony and get ladoos that are distributed by teachers of the modest school located in the slum every year on January 26.

His 10-year-old sister Anam left his side to get the sweets. When she returned, Afzal was gone. Others told her that two middle-aged men had picked the boy and disappeared.

She rushed home and informed her mother. Afzal's family led by his father Shakeel, a vegetable vendor, launched a manhunt. As their efforts failed, the family approached police. The family was told to wait for a while. There was shock in store for the family as well as for other families in the locality.

Around 9.30am, a neighbour called on the family with news on Afzal whose body was found dumped near a garbage heap outside an under construction apartment less than 300 metres from Shakeel's rented house.

The body was mutilated and the first impression of people who had seen the body was that there human sacrifice at play though police underplayed the theory. The eyes were gouged, abdomen ruptured and body parts including intestines mingled in the garbage. Dogs and stray animals were feasting on the body parts when people chased them away, but by then had managed to chop off legs and fingers.

As per postmortem, Afzal died of head injury and had been burnt. It is suspected that assailants killed Afzal after dealing a severe blow on the head right after abducting him so that he could not cry for help. Later, they mutilated the body. Presence of Bainsakunth Dham , a hotbed of sorcerers near the spot where the body was discovered, added weight to human sacrifice theory.

Police reached the spot and took the body and its remains in custody. A burnt jute bag used to carry the body to the spot was also recovered. The charred sweater and pajama the boy was wearing was also taken in custody. It was suspected that the body had been dumped near the spot on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. Family did not point fingers at anyone. The couple has two daughters Muskaan (14) and Anam (10) besides Afzal.

Police were yet to find out where the boy was taken and burnt by the assailants or likely motive other than human sacrifice, as suspected. Senior superintendent of police Praveen Kumar said all aspects were being probed and list of people who stay in the locality was being prepared. "It is clear that assailants were familiar with the area. The place where the body was found was also not too far and our priority is to locate the spot where the boy had been kept and burnt," he said.

