Sharjah, July 18: Mohammad Aftab Alam, the father of a 15-year-old missing Indian boy in Sharjah, on Thursday offered a reward of 5,000 dirhams to anyone who finds his son.

Mohammed Pervez has been missing from his home in Sharjah's Muweilah area since July 4. It is believed that the boy got upset with his mother who stopped him from watching a show on YouTube and snatched his smartphone, Gulf News reported.

"I would just like to see him come home safe. We have been praying all day since he's disappeared," Alam told Gulf News.

"We will give 5,000 dirhams to anyone who produces any kind of information about my son. anything, I just want him back."

On Thursday, Alam travelled with Sharjah police authorities to Kalba, Fujairah, in search of his son. They were accompanied by child protection officials. The police said they will not intervene in any efforts made by the family to find their son.

"A three-member team of the child protection team took me to Kalba where my brother Mohammad Firoze Alam lives. We were hoping to find some clues there," Alam said.

Several leads have been chased since Pervez went missing but none has panned out so far, the report said.

As per reports, the Grade IX student got upset and went missing after his mother chided him for watching a historical Hindi drama on YouTube and snatched his smartphone.

The boy's father said Pervez had just 8 dirhams with him.

"How long can it possibly last? At first we thought he would come back in the afternoon but when he didn't show up until late evening we got worried and alerted the police.

Now, his desperate family has been holding onto hope and fervently praying for the boy's safe return.

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ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.

The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.

Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.