I HAVE eight columns left to write this year after this one. I said the last two months should be different. Cheerful maybe. Insightful, at least. Something new. Then Waseem Abbas happened.

He was 15. His father died nine years ago. His mother remarried. A grandfather and an uncle took turns looking after him until they could not. Then they took him to an orphanage in Multan. His grandfather said he wanted the boy to get an education rather than struggle on the streets. That was five years ago.

Waseem wanted to learn electrical work. The orphanage sent him to a contractor, Tauqeer Nazir, after what it says were inquiries. Media reports say Tauqeer had a team of around 40 boys. Six days later, Waseem was dead.

According to the FIR, he ran. He passed residents on a street in a private housing society and told them the men behind him wanted to kill him. A car followed. His head struck a pillar at a gate. His skull was crushed. His cousin says Waseem had often said he did not want to go to the electrician. He wanted to go home. He was buried at 2am in Muzaffargarh. Only close relatives and orphanage officials attended.

Arrest, escape, encounter, closure. We know........

© Dawn