Attacks on women: Police clueless after no evidence found against 'main suspect'

Two dozen female police personnel deployed for security in District Central

KARACHI: After losing hopes of obtaining clues from the suspect taken into custody from Mandi Bahauddin, the police are apparently at a loss in the chase of the elusive attacker who has been targetting women in Karachi. Meanwhile, over two dozen female police personnel have been deployed in District Central in the wake of rising incidents of knife attacks on women in the metropolis.
The prime suspect, Waseem, who was involved in dozens of cases of stabbing women in his hometown in Sahiwal and Chicha Watni, has been in the custody of the Sahiwal police since he was arrested in a joint raid by Sindh and Punjab police a few days ago. During investigations, it was found that he had been using at least 16 different mobile SIMs before his arrest.
"We have checked the data of all his SIMs and found that he made no phone calls from Karachi. He also did not receive any calls from Karachi on the dates the incidents occurred," said a senior police officer involved in the investigation. "During the days when women were stabbed in Karachi, Waseem was in Gujranwala or Lahore," the officer revealed, adding that all the evidence collected so far establishes that Waseem is not the knifeman involved in the stabbing incidents in Karachi. However, the police is still investigating the matter and nothing can be concluded before the investigations are completed, the officer said.


Meanwhile, investigators in Karachi have not found any trace of the attacker despite detaining at least 38 suspects, verifying the data of at least 200 cellphones and having 15,000 phone calls traced.
Apart from the 13 incidents of women stabbing in District East alone, at least two similar incidents have so far occurred in District Central. In the most recent incident, a 15-year-old girl was attacked on Tuesday by a motorcyclist with a knife in Federal B Area Block 9 when she was travelling on a motorcycle with her brother.
Investigations into the incidents of District Central have also been fruitless, just like the probes into the incidents in District East.
At least 13 women have been injured in knife attacks in parts of District East while similar cases have also been reported in other districts since the stabbings began on September 25. Despite issuing details of the attacker and announcing a reward of Rs1 million, the police have not received any significant help from residents of the city in their quest to catch the attacker.

 

Female police personnel deployed
In order to protect the women and to arrest the knifeman, District Central police have deployed as many as 25 female police personnel in different locations of the district.



"In addition to the uniformed and plainclothes personnel, we have also deployed female police officers," said Central and West Zone police chief DIG Zulfiqar Larik. "We are still investigating both the incidents in District Central and right now it cannot be conclusively stated that they were cases of stabbings," he said.

 

Another suspect
Sources privy to the investigations revealed that a detained suspect, Fawad, has disclosed that one of his friends, Ahsan, who is a drug addict, disappeared for a few days. Fawad has accused Ahsan of being involved in the attacks. Investigators are looking for Ahsan.