Bloody Monday: Kidnapped Singaporean among eight found dead

The woman was kidnapped over weekend; guard killed in robbery bid; six including child unidentified.

ISLAMABAD:

It was a day of death in the federal capital on Monday, as the police recovered seven bodies from three different locations in the city and confirmed the death of one more person in what appeared to be three separate homicides and a botched robbery.

In Bani Gala, the police found the dead body of a woman who was kidnapped for ransom.

The woman’s kidnapping was reported to the Aabpara Police Station on Saturday by her mother, Noshaba Taskeen.

Taskeen told the police that her daughter, Fehmeena Umair, a Singaporean national and an advertising professional, had come to Islamabad from Karachi on Thursday for work.

She spent Thursday night at the Margalla Hotel on Kashmir Highway, and her mother, who lives in Karachi, last spoke with her on Friday, according to the police.

Umair was supposed to fly back to Singapore from Islamabad on Saturday.

According to the police, Taskeen got a ransom call the same day. The kidnappers demanded Rs20 million and threatened her not to inform the authorities.

Taskeen flew to Islamabad and reported the kidnapping-f0r-ransom to the police. She told the police that suspects Muaz, Amir and one unidentified person were involved in the kidnapping. It was not clear whether or not the kidnappers had identified themselves during the call.

Taskeen also said that Umair had around Rs4 million in cash and jewellery with her before she was kidnapped, according to police.

Police said Umair and her family knew the suspects.

The authorities were investigating the case when the dead body was found and identified on Monday. The police said the cause of death was a stab wound from a sharp object. The body was taken to PIMS.

A police official said the Aabpara police have made one arrest in connection with the murder and interrogations were likely to reveal more information about the kidnappers. He added that the murder was not extortion-related.

Across town, the Sihala police found four bodies in a ditch near Gora Shahan — a residential neighbourhood close to Rawat toll plaza on Islamabad Highway.

According to the police, the dead bodies were of two men, a woman and a child, who were wearing night clothes. Initially, the police thought the dead belonged to the same family, but could not confirm any relationship between the deceased because no identification was found on any of the bodies.

The police moved the bodies to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for post-mortem. There were marks around the necks of the four dead bodies, the police said, indicating that the deaths might have been caused by strangulation. An officer at the Sihala Police Station said DNA samples have been collected to determine if the four people were related.

The child, police estimated, was around 10 years old. But details were unclear about the ages of the other three. Police estimated the woman was in her late-20s and the men in their mid-30s.

Security guard shot dead

The Sihala Police also confirmed that a 45-year-old security guard was shot dead outside a beverage factory in the Rawat Industrial Area in the wee hours of Monday.

The authorities said three unidentified men attempted a robbery at the factory around 2am. The gunmen were stopped by the factory’s security guards. During the scuffle, guard Saleem Akhtar was shot by the robbers. Akhtar succumbed to his injuries before he could be given medical care. The robbery was foiled but the gunmen escaped, the police said, adding that a case was registered.

Two more in Loi Bher

The Loi Bher police were as clueless about two bodies found in their jurisdiction as their counterparts at the Sihala Police Station were about the four bodies they recovered.

Police could only say the body of a man and a woman were dumped in the bushes near Block A of Police Foundation.

Initial reports said the man and woman were husband and wife, but police said they were still trying to determine the identities of the two. A police official said the woman appeared to have been strangulated, while the man died due to a stab wound from a sharp object.

The two dead bodies were sent for post-mortem, according to the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2013.