Eyewitness accounts, as reported to the police, suggest that the attacker has no accomplices and is probably a psychopath who exclusively targets women. His profile is similar to tens of thousands of people who ride a motorcycle but, unlike most of them, he wears a helmet — not for safety but to conceal his identity. His knifing victims were not as carefully chosen as people would like to think but more randomly targeted depending on their vulnerability to attack and neither their age and family background appears to be a primary consideration. One noticeable trend from the current stabbings is that the perpetrator seems altogether uninterested in murdering his victim; his objective is to injure and maim women. Judging from his actions also, it can be safely surmised that the slasher craves public attention and absolutely revels in the widespread fear and panic he is causing. He also seems to have widened the area of stabbing activities — venturing into the more densely populated Gulshan-e-Iqbal area from Gulistan-e-Jauhar.
Law-enforcement authorities in Sindh are desperate to nab the slasher who has successfully evaded arrest so far. With a cash reward of Rs500,000 for information about him and a litany of complaints against him, the net may eventually close in on him. The slasher uses a scalpel against his victims — one of the few clues that policemen have collected about him, suggesting that he may be working in a hospital or a medical equipment store. The police will have to do all their homework to end the knifing spree.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2017.
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