Wanted killer arrested after a year

Hussain axed two ‘friends’ into pieces and buried their bodies.

ISLAMABAD:

The city police on Wednesday arrested a proclaimed offender wanted for a double murder in the area of Nilore last August. Acting on a tip-off, the Nilore police raided his residence in Tarlai and took Iftikhar Hussain alias Kharo without resistance.

Kharo is wanted for a double-murder. He had axed two men to death and dumped their bodies near Soan River, police said.

The bodies of Zulfiqar Ali and Qammar Iqbal were recovered from Soan a day after the murder in August last year. Their bodies were chopped into pieces. The two victims were “his friends” and had stayed with him at various periods of time before the incident, according to the police. They were staying at his place when they were murdered, police said.

The Nilore police said that both Ali and Iqbal were also proclaimed offenders wanted in murder and drug smuggling cases. The three had become friends in jail, police said. “Hussain had served a jail term for murder and met many gangsters, criminals and drug dealers,” said an official. Ali and Iqbal often visited Hussain and allegedly developed an intimate relationship with his sister. Hussain got wind of the relationship and connived with his friends to kill Iqbal and Ali. Police said the incident occurred days after Hussain got out of jail.

He and his friends took the two men to a deserted area and committed the gruesome murder. They dumped the dead men’s remains near Soan River, where a passerby later spotted them.

Ali’s body was identified by his brother at the mortuary, while Iqbal was identified with the help of identity documents found on the body.

Police said Hussain, who is in his late 30s, committed his first murder in Gujar Khan over a personal enmity, and had grown into an even more vicious criminal under the influence of other jail inmates.



Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2011.