Killer of own children killed while ‘fleeing police custody’

Azeem had allegedly thrown his offspring into a canal on Oct 2

LAHORE:

The man who had allegedly thrown his four children into a canal 15 days ago in Kahna area of Lahore has met a violent end.

Three of the children’s bodies were fished out but one still remained missing.

According to the police, while police were taking him to recover the body of the fourth child, the suspect’s unidentified associates allegedly opened fire on the police team due to which the accused was killed by the firing of his own colleagues.

The police van was also damaged in the firing.

The police shifted the body to the hospital for a postmortem examination.

On the evening of October 2, Azeem, a resident of Kahna Panjo village, an area of Lahore, had allegedly killed his four children -- 12-year-old Ghulam Sabir, 9-year-old Samia, 5-year-old Nabiba and 2-year-old Ayesha, by throwing them into the Kasoor Lilyani Canal due to an alleged fight with his wife.

The suspect was the father of two sons and five daughters while the youngest son was born a few days ago.

Police said the suspect had been a psychiatric patient.

On the day of the incident, his wife had gone to her parents’ home along with her 13-year-old daughter, Sanobar, and her newborn son.

On Sunday evening, the suspect had taken his four children to the Liliani Canal on the pretext of taking pictures, but he threw them into the canal.

Bodies of three children had been fished out from the canal through a rescue operation on the identification by accused, while the body of 5-year-old girl, Nabiba, had not been found yet.

The team of Kahna investigation had been taking the accused Azeem to recover her, but his unknown motorcycle-riding companions attacked the police party on the way to the Gadu Palli and started firing in order to rescue the accused, due to which the accused died by the firing of his own associates.

Inspector Asghar Bhatti, in charge of the investigation wing, said that the suspect had been in police custody for 13 days.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2023.