LAHORE: The bodies of two boys were found in an open drain near Fane Road on Saturday.

Civil Lines police recovered the bodies of five-year-old Waqar and four-year-old Moavia after the locals spotted them.

Initial police inquiries suggest it a drowning case. Police said the minors might have fallen into the drain on Friday noon when they were going to purchase bread from a tandoor.

Civil Lines SHO Abid Rasheed told Dawn postmortem reports revealed that drowning was the cause of their death. He said the medical report also denied any suspicion of sexual abuse.

He said Waqar had left his house to purchase bread from a tandoor and took his friend, Moavia, from his house for company. They, however, did not return home till evening.

The SHO said their disappearance panicked their families as the murder of a seven-year-old boy after abuse in Green Town was still being aired by the media.

The police lodged a kidnap FIR on the complaint of Babar, Waqar’s father, against unidentified suspects.

Meanwhile, a large number of people, including relatives of the drowned boys, gathered at the Regal Chowk to hold a protest. They were of the views that the open drain had been a serious threat to the residents near it, particularly for the elderly and the children.