Knife attack: Case registered, but ‘killer’ still at large

Boundary dispute between Murree, Abbottabad police resolved.


Our Correspondent April 16, 2014
Nadeem Khan, who had purportedly taken his three nephews --- Zain, Mahar and Waqar Ali --- for a drive, slit their throats and left them for dead. PHOTO: FILE

RAWALPINDI:


Two children who were allegedly killed by their uncle were laid to rest in their ancestral village in Abbottabad on Tuesday. The funeral was delayed due to a jurisdictional dispute between Abbottabad and Murree police.


Speaking to The Express Tribune, Ziaur Rahman, the boys’ father said they requested the Murree police to hand over the bodies for burial, but had to wait till the Abbottabad City police could come and register a case.

Nadeem Khan, who had purportedly taken his three nephews --- Zain, Mahar and Waqar Ali --- for a drive, slit their throats and left them for dead. Zain however, was not fatally wounded and ‘played dead’ before walking to a nearby road, where passersby took him to a hospital. He is still unable to talk due to the nature of his injuries, but was able to give the police a written statement.



As the children were killed in Abbottabad and their bodies dumped near Murree, Rehman stated that the Murree police insisted that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Police register an FIR.

When the city police arrived, officials from both sides started arguing over jurisdiction and persuade the other to register the case.

“To avoid investigating, cops from both cities tried to convince us to register a case at the other’s station,” said Sajid, a relative of the children.

As the bodies were recovered from near Chattar, which falls in the jurisdiction of the Murree police, the FIR was registered in Murree.

But the process took several hours, leaving the grieving family to spend more time waiting for the situation to get resolved. “The boundary dispute compounded our misery. It took hours to resolve and my children’s burial was delayed till 11pm,” said the father.

According to Rahman, the family was planning to move abroad next month and was waiting for their visas. “The killer couldn’t bear to see us happy and killed my children,” he said. Nadeem had switched off his cell phone before taking the children for a ride to Harnoi, he added.



The Murree police confirmed an FIR had been registered and said investigations were under way. A senior police official, who wished not to be named, said the killer’s mobile phone data had been retrieved and documents found in the jeep, which Khan had abandoned, have been confiscated.

Murree police investigation officer Sadaqat Ali said the boundary dispute arose because the incident took place in Abbottabad and the killer dumped the bodies in their jurisdiction.

“We’ve resolved the issue and a team I’m heading is in Abbottabad for investigation.” He said, however, that no progress had been made so far. The police have yet to retrieve Nadeem’s mobile phone data, but the dagger the police found has been sent for a forensic analysis to confirm the killer’s identity with the help of fingerprints, he added.

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Spokesperson Dr Ayesha Ehsani said Zain’s condition was improving and he had been removed from the ventilator at 10am. “He has started breathing on his own which is a positive sign.”

However, he is still in the intensive care unit and under strict surveillance, she added. “We are making all-out efforts to save his life.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16th, 2014.

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