Pakistan hunts man claiming killing 100 boys
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Pakistan hunts man claiming killing 100 boys
By Aurang Zeb
LAHORE, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Pakistani police on Friday hunted a suspected
serial
killer who left the remains of three boys in an acid barrel and a note
saying
he had killed 100 more.
``I have killed 100 children and put their bodies in acid containers and
later
disposed of the undissolved body parts,'' police quoted the note as
saying.
Police said the man, identified as Javed Iqbal, left sacks containing
photographs and clothes which parents of 16 missing boys identified as
belonging to their children, but said so far only three rotting bodies
had been
found in the barrel.
They said Iqbal, who had three complaints lodged against him for alleged
sodomy
dating from 1990 but no convictions, had disappeared, leaving a note
claiming
to have carried out the killings and a threat to commit suicide.
Police divers, backed by troops, searched the Ravi river near the
three-roomed
house he had rented in a poor suburb of Lahore and sent teams to cheap
hotels.
Police said three bodies mutilated beyond recognition were found in a
barrel of
acid. At first they thought they were the remains of two boys, but later
identified a third skull.
EVIDENCE POINTS TO MORE VICTIMS
A duty officer at the local police station said dozens of small shoes of
different sizes and children's board games were found at the house,
indicating
that many children had visited it over a period of time.
The APP news agency, quoting senior police officials, said ``the
gruesome
act...came to light when two bodies, which were mutilated beyond
recognition,
were recovered from a dingy and deserted house...in the Ravi Road area
here on
Thursday.''
``The unidentified killer also left a note pasted on the wall saying
that he
had murdered more than 100 persons while the addresses and photographs
of those
murdered... are also noted in his personal diary, which has been
confiscated by
the local police,'' it said.
Neighbours said they had seen no activity in the house for the last 15
days and
knew little about the man who had rented it. Police said two close
relatives of
the suspect had been detained for questioning about the man.
They said his note, dated November 22, said he would kill himself after
writing
it.
The suburb west of Lahore, capital of Punjab province, is a typical
Pakistani
satellite township for the poor with improvised housing packed tightly
beside
the river Rawi.
The story was given splash treatment by Pakistani media, which pointed
out that
Iqbal's rented house was only 200 metres (yards) from the nearest police
station.
In the mid-1980s dozens of people were killed in Punjab and North West
Frontier
provinces in attacks which police blamed on a so-called ``hammer group''
after
a team broke into houses and bludgeoned occupants to death with a
hammer.
The group was never found or arrested.
05:51 12-03-99
------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of yesterday's Associated Press news
wire:
Serial Killer Sought in Pakistan
By MUNIR AHMED
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - While on the trail of the self-confessed killer
of 100
children, Pakistani police have detained two men who admitted they had
sex with
many of the alleged serial killer's victims.
Police are hunting for a man who identified himself as Javed Iqbal in a
letter
he sent to police last week in which he said he killed the children,
then
disposed of their bodies in acid.
Police spokesman Ashiq Marath said Monday that police in the eastern
city of
Lahore have two men in custody who say they are friends of Iqbal. The
two men
confessed that they had sexually assaulted 25 of the children, but both
denied
killing their captives, according to Marath.
Many of the children, who ranged in age from 7 to 16 years old, were
among the
country's poorest and worked on the streets in Punjab's provincial
capital,
Lahore.
In his letter, Iqbal, 40, who said he was a chemical engineer, included
instructions that led police to a drum containing the remains of two
bodies in
sulfuric and hydrochloric acid. They are the only bodies found so far.
The letter also led police to clothes and photographs of his victims.
They were
found in a house that Iqbal apparently rented in one of the city's
poorest
neighborhoods, near a park and one of the city's largest shrines, where
young
boys often beg.
Iqbal wrote in his letter that he began slaying the children after
police
wrongly detained and beat him, and that his killing spree went on from
June 18
to Nov. 22.
Iqbal was last seen on Oct. 18 at his father's home in Lahore when he
returned
to collect his passport. Over the weekend, his younger brother, Pervez,
was
taken to a graveyard outside Lahore to see a body police thought might
be
Iqbal's. It turned out not to be him.
Police also have taken into custody Iqbal's ex-wife, son and daughter in
an
attempt to lure the suspected serial killer out of hiding.
AP-NY-12-06-99
----------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of today's Reuters news wire:
Witness in Pakistan serial killing jumps to death
LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec 7 (Reuters) - A key witness in the mysterious case
of a
Pakistani man who has confessed to killing 100 boys jumped to his death
in
police custody on Tuesday, police said.
They said Ishaq Billa, suspected of selling acid to the self-confessed
serial
killer, died after jumping from the second floor of the Crime
Investigation
Agency office in Lahore, capital of populous Punjab province.
Pakistani police in the past have been criticised by human rights groups
for
torturing suspects.
There was no official comment on the death of Billa, being investigated
for his
involvement with Javed Iqbal, who remains at large after setting off a
wave of
nationwide fear and outrage last week when he said in a note addressed
to
police that he had killed 100 boys.
Police found the remains of three children in barrels of acid at Iqbal's
house
in a Lahore slum. Billa was accused of selling the acid to Iqbal.
Police have two other suspects in custody thought to be involved in what
is
likely Pakistan's worst-ever serial killing case.
Lahore police chief Malik Muhammad Iqbal told reporters on Monday that
the
parents of 69 missing children had identified clothes, pictures or shoes
of
their children among items found in Iqbal's house.
The police chief said some ``important'' information had been obtained
from the
two suspects but he gave no details.
Police have sent teams to several cities in Punjab looking for Iqbal and
on
Saturday the provincial government offered a reward of one million
rupees
($19,600) for any information leading to his arrest.
Iqbal, who had three complaints lodged against him for alleged sodomy
dating
from 1990 but no convictions, left a note at his house claiming to have
carried
out the killings and threatened to commit suicide.
06:31 12-07-99
--------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/7/99 online edition of The
DAWN
Newspaper Group of Pakistan:
07 December 1999 Tuesday 28 Shaban 1420
Seven more victims identified
By Azmat Abbas
LAHORE, Dec 6: The man accused of killing 100 boys in Ravi Road area
still
remains at large, four days after the mass-killing was unearthed. On
Friday
Javed Iqbal Mughal, 40, had sent letters to the press and the police
claiming
that he had killed 100 boys after criminally assaulting them. The
bodies, the
accused claimed, were dissolved in a mixture of acids. On Monday the
number of
victims identified by their parents through pictures and other
belongings
increased to 69.
On the other hand, the police continued unsuccessful hunt for Javed
Iqbal, who
police investigators believe was still present in the city.
"We have failed to find any clue suggesting that Javed committed
suicide. He is
very much alive and is hiding somewhere in the city. This is the most
disturbing fact," said a police officer. He said: "Javed was seen in
Bhai Pheru
on Dec 1, where he visited the house of his 14-year-old employee,
Nadeem, and
later took him away. We have concrete information that another employee
of
Javed, Sajid, whom he claimed to have murdered, was still alive and with
him.
At present the police were concentrating on tracking down Javed and the
two
accomplices who our intelligence agencies claimed were accompanying him
all the
time."
Talking to Dawn on Monday, Lahore Range DIG Malik Iqbal said another
person,
whom the psychopath claimed in his diary to be his accomplice, was
arrested by
the Shadbagh police. Muhammad Ishaq alias Billa was a rickshaw driver
and was a
close friend of Javed. The arrest of Ishaq took the number of suspects
in
custody to seven. On Sunday two accomplices, Zafar and Sabir, confessed
to
their involvements in some of the 100 murders.
Reportedly, Ishaq was the one who was assigned the task to bring acids
to the
house and take away the solution in which the bodies were dissolved. He
also
used to entice the children from around the Minar-i-Pakistan and the
shrine of
Data Gunj Bukhsh. Ishaq was being detained at the CIA Headquarters in
Qila
Gujjar Singh for interrogation.
A senior police officer who interrogated Zafar and Sabir overnight said
the
suspects' claimed of killing a young pregnant girl and dissolving her
body in
the acid remains to be verified. During interrogation the accused told
the
police that Sajid had illicit relations with a girl and she became
pregnant.
"The girl insisted Sajid to marry her and to get rid of her we killed
her.
Later, the body was dissolved in the acid solution and thrown in the
sewer,"
the officer quoted the accused as having said to the interrogators.
Lahore SSP Saud Aziz said the fact about the killing of the girl was
also
mentioned in Javed's diary but her clothes or shoes were not recovered
from the
place. "We have no evidence which supports the claim of the accused,"
the SSP
said. He said the police teams were conducting raids in at least six
cities in
search of the main accused.
WIFE AND DAUGHTER OF THE MANIAC: Requesting anonymity, a senior police
officer
said although Javed's wife and daughter were not involved in the
murders, they
were detained to put pressure on the accused.
"From his family sources we have learnt that he was very fond of his
daughter.
He often rebuked his wife for treating the girl in a harsh manner.
Maybe, he
will get upset and make a mistake giving us a chance to nab him," said
the
officer.
VICTIMS IDENTIFIED: The identities of at least seven victims were
established
with the help of their pictures and other belongings by the families.
At around 7pm the policemen had started gathering the items. Muhammad
Aslam and
his wife, residents of Saeed Park, Shahdara, arrived. Their 14-year-old
son,
Muhammad Wasim, was missing for the past four months. The couple was
sifting
the clothes when they identified the trouser and shirt of their son.
They were
overwhelmed by grief and the woman started wailing.
All the policemen gathered around the couple and tried to console them.
After
crying hysterically for about 15 minutes the woman suddenly lost her
voice and
started laughing. She kept on asking everybody about the whereabouts of
her son
and went from room to room. The in charge of the police station gave her
some
water and sent the couple back home in the official vehicle.
Faisal, 13, son of Abdul Razzaq, was missing for the past three months.
His
parents lived in Arifwala while he was adopted by his grandmother,
Sardaran
Bibi, a resident of Islampura.
Aged around 70 years, Sardaran Bibi, was sitting in a corner of the
police
station and cried alone. "I adopted him when he was still in his
mother's lap.
He grew up in front of me and started going to work at a factory on Bund
Road.
I cannot believe that he could be dead. It was my time to go but God
took him
away," she said with tears in her eyes.
Abdul Jabbar, 13, son of Abdul Sattar, was missing from his house in
Kamalia,
Toba Tek Singh, since a month ago. His clothes and picture were
identified by
his cousin, Muhammad Arshad.
Saifullah, 16, a resident of Jhang was missing for the past three
months. He
worked at a tyre shop and was the eldest of two brothers and three
sisters. His
picture and clothes were identified by his father, Saeed Ahmad.
Abdul Jabbar, 15, son of Fakir Husain, was missing for the past four
months.
His parents, who had arrived from Faisalabad, identified his belongings.
The clothes and picture of Bashir Ahmad, 10, a resident of Vehari, were
identified by his brother, Qari Ghulam Shabbir. He was the youngest of
six
brothers and was missing for the past four months. Bashir was visiting
his
relatives in Shafiqabad when he went missing.
Imtiaz Ali, 13, son of Mukhtar Husain, was a resident of Khanewal. He
went to a
market near his house about three months ago but did not return back.
His
father identified his clothes and shoes.
At least 15 photographs were still present at the Ravi Road police
station,
while 31 names and addresses given in the list of victims still remain
to be
identified.
--------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/7/99 online edition of The
Guardian
(UK) newspaper:
Confessions back suicide note claims of child killings
Jason Burke in Islamabad
Tuesday December 7, 1999
Police in Pakistan say they have found evidence to support claims made
by a
self-confessed serial killer in a suicide note last week that he
murdered 100
young boys in just a few months.
It is still not clear whether the author of the note, a 40-year-old
loner
called Javed Iqbal, killed himself, and a huge manhunt is under way.
Police
have arrested eight of his associates and family members.
Saad Aziz, the officer leading the investigation, said yesterday that
two
"accomplices" of Iqbal had confessed to helping murder more than 25
children.
Mohammed Sabir, 15, and Zafar Ahmed, 19, told his men that they had
helped
Iqbal lure dozens of young runaway children to his home in a run-down
area of
north-west Lahore with the promise of food, a bed and videos.
The boys were sexually assaulted, drugged and suffocated with a pillow
while
unconscious. Their bodies were then dissolved in acid.
When police raided Iqbal's house in Lahore last week, they found two
plastic
barrels of acid containing the partly dissolved bodies of two children
and the
skull of a third. They also found 10 more barrels of acid in which,
according
to forensic tests released yesterday, "organic material" - possibly
human - had
been dissolved.
The claims in the suicide note have also been corroborated by the
identification of 62 of the alleged victims from pictures police
received from
Iqbal.
For the last four days, worried relatives of missing children have
thronged
Ravi Road police station where around 50 pictures showing 100 children
have
been on display.
Clothes and shoes found in Iqbal's squalid three-roomed apartment have
also
been identified by relatives. Their testimony appears to tally with
detailed
dates and times of the murders from Iqbal.
However, three children pictured by Iqbal have turned up alive and well
in a
small village close to Lahore. According to their families they
disappeared in
the summer before returning home. They are currently being interviewed
by
police.
"Some things are inconsistent but on the whole the evidence is coming
together," said one senior investigator last night. "He may not have
killed a
hundred but it is beginning to look like he killed a lot."
Iqbal, who was twice married and divorced, appears to have been widely
known as
a practising paedophile. He was the subject of a number of police
complaints
and was briefly imprisoned on a sexual assault charge 10 years ago.
Neighbours and childhood friends have told reporters that he had an
unhealthy
obsession with guns. He also appears to have collected snakes and police
believe that he may have used them to draw the children into his home.
The case has shocked Pakistan. Campaigners say that although child abuse
is
widespread in the country it is still a taboo subject and is seen as a
problem
of the west.
Now there are calls for an improvement in provisions for young victims
of
abuse. Currently, children have little alternative but to run away from
home.
There are no young people's homes nor any central register of missing
people
and there has been sustained criticism about the attitude of police to
the
problem.
Many of the relatives of those who are presumed to have fallen victim to
Iqbal
say that they were beaten or insulted insulted by police when they
reported the
disappearance of their children.
The News, a respected daily, has called for a "safety net, ensuring that
vulnerable children are provided shelter".
The police are under enormous pressure from the country's new military
regime
to catch the killer quickly, according to one official source in Lahore
last
night. "It is very hectic. They are all trying to save their jobs," the
source
said.