A man suspected of kidnapping and murdering an MPhil scholar was killed allegedly in a police encounter near Madani Colony in a densely populated locality of Bahawalnagar.
The suspect was also well-educated and a teacher in a government school. Bahawalnagar police spokesperson Zahid Rasool Khan told The Express Tribune that Talha Arshad, who had completed MPhil in food sciences and was PhD student, had been kidnapped and later shot dead in the head last month. His body was sealed in a box and dumped into an old well.
The kidnappers had taken the mobile phone of the victim to Sahiwal and demanded Rs10 million in ransom through a message to release him. After two days, the kidnappers had gone to Donga Bonga on the suburbs of the city and reduced their demand to Rs8 million, threatening to kill the youth if his family did not pay the ransom.
A couple of days later, they went to Manchanabad and against demand the ransom.
In an apparent bid to mislead the police, the kidnapers accuse Talha of harassing women. They also sent a video clip to the family, showing Talha tied with ropes.
After the repeated threats, the family of the victim paid a ransom of $4,000 and $500 more on January 29.
The following day, a call was received by of rescue hotline 15 that a box was floating in a well, upon which Sub-Inspector Wahab Aslam reached the spot and pulled out the box with the help of Rescue 1122 officials.
The decomposing body of Talha Arshad was found in the box.
After the discovery of the body, the police had arrested two prime suspects in the case. The police were taking the suspect Hameed to help find Talha's motorcycle on Friday night when his accomplices allegedly opened fire on them.
According to the police spokesman, Hameed was killed by the firing of his accomplices who managed to escape after the encounter.
The police shifted the body to a hospital for postmortem.
The city’s traders had observed a strike and staged a protest sit-in against the police after the murder of the kidnapped youth, after which the DPO had promised steps to ensure justice in the case.
A team had identified a house used by the suspects with the help of information technology and arrested the suspects after keeping it under surveillance.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th 2024.
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