Naked weapon: A love to kill for

Police catch a student wanting to kill his classmate for harassing teacher.

ISLAMABAD:

Police on Tuesday held a young student brandishing a weapon with a “motivation” to kill.

Abbas Yousuf, 20, a student of Global System of Integrated Studies, was intercepted by a police mobile on the main road, carrying a loaded pistol and a wrench. He was taken to Shalimar Police Station for interrogation.

Initially, the police suspected he was going to use the weapon for some terrorist activity.

“He was so bold and confident that he did not try to conceal the weapon despite wearing a shawl,” said a police official. It was the level of his confidence and motivation that moved the police to investigate him for a possible terrorist link.

However, the boy remained firm on his story.  “I was going to kill a class fellow of mine because he was harassing one of our female teachers,” he told the police. It sounded strange, said the police. They suspected he was making up a story to cover up a covert plan for some terrorist activity.

Initially reluctant to disclose the true reason behind his strong motivation to take a life, the boy eventually caved in during interrogation, police said.

“He said he liked his teacher. She had asked Yousuf to talk to the boy harassing her,” said a police official who had interrogated him. According to Yousuf, he had asked the boy, a resident of Saidpur, to abstain from harassing the teacher.

However his class fellow “did not mend his ways.”

When his teacher told him that the same boy had harassed her again, he became enraged, the police official said.

“He wanted to beat his class fellow with the help of the wrench, before shooting him dead,” he added.

Police said Yousuf was a permanent resident of Swat while he was living temporarily in a house in sector F-11/2. They said he was intercepted with a loaded weapon from a main road in F-10.

After the initial investigations, the police were confident that he had no terror links. They registered a criminal case against Yousuf for carrying a non-licensed pistol at a public place. They said their first priority was to track down the source from where he had gotten the weapon.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2011.