Cops question lone survivor

Investigators say youth suspected of addiction to drugs, violent games

LAHORE:

Police have again taken into custody the lone surviving youth of a family whose four members were shot dead at their home in Kahna.

Investigators said the decision was taken in view of information about addiction of the young man to drugs and violent online games.

The SSP investigations said 18-year-old Zain has been called again for investigation after the police found new evidence about the murders.

However, the the police had not formally arrested the suspect in connection with the case, the official said.

An officer privy to the investigation shared that Zain was reportedly very fond of playing the Players Unknown Battleground (PUBG) game and addicted to the Ice drug.

Sources said his mother scolded him for focusing on the game rather than his studies. In last two years, many incidents have been reported in which children and youngsters obsessed with the game had shown tendencies of self-harm as well as violence.

Lahore police had also written a letter to Pakistan Telecommunicaton Authority (PTA), stressing the need to ban the game in view of reports of violent crimes by youths linked with it.

Last year, a man reportedly influenced by PUBG and Ice had shot dead several members of his family in Nawan Kot. The officer said police were taking this aspect into account also.

“The case is being investigated from every angle and the culprits will soon be identified,” the SSP said.

Zain, the eldest son of the deceased Naheed Mubarak, a lady health worker, usually slept in a room next to the one where she, her two daughters and a son were found murdered in the night. However, on the night of the incident, he had slept in another part of the building, on ground floor.

The room was in an unmaintained condition with only a dirty stretcher and a chair in it. Naheed Mubarak some times used it as a clinic for delivery.

The room did not have quilt or blanket despite the harsh cold weather of January.

The youth’s unusual absence from the upper floor with his family had raised suspicions of the police, making him the prime suspect.

Police had taken him into custody along with his uncle and father who had separated from his mother.

The latter two were included in the investigation to grill them about any property or other dispute. However, the police freed them after investigations over a couple of days.

Zain also had met an accident two days before the murder of his family.

The explanation put forth by Zain about his whereabouts to the police was that his mother had told him to go downstairs to start the engine of their car to warm it as they were supposed to leave for some work. He went downstairs but his mother did not show up for quite some time, he reportedly said.

The investigation officer shared with The Express Tribune the deceased Naheed Mubarak was a strict mother for her children except her youngest daughter Jannat Fatima, whom she had raised after a couple abandoned her following her birth in the clinic.

The officer said Zain had told the interrogators that he waited for some time for his mother, but due d not call her out of fear that she might admonish him.

“I was feeling tired and sleepy owing to pain killers it had for the injuries suffered in the accident, so I went to take a nap in the clinic until my mother arrived,” Zain was quoted as saying.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2022.