Homicide: Veteran, father found stabbed at farmhouse

Police, relative suspect servants who are missing for two days.

LAHORE:

A retired army major and his father were found stabbed at the family’s farm house in Burki on Tuesday.

Police said Major (retd) Shahid Hussain, 50, and his father Mansha Hussain, 85, a retired Wapda employee, had been stabbed and killed at least two days ago at the farm house near Thether Pind, a mile away from the Elite Police Training School.

They said a note written on a tissue paper was found next to the bodies. It read: “We are holding your servant and his wife hostage, if you want them back alive arrange Rs2 million, we will inform you about the location and time”.

Police, however, suspected the family servant, Mustafa, and his wife of killing the two and leaving the note as a cover up.

An FIR has been lodged against Mustafa and his wife on a complaint by Tariq Hussain, son of deceased Mansha Hussain.

Cantonment SP (Investigation) Amin Bukhari said the two servants, residents of Nankana Sahib, had been missing for two days. He said the knife used for stabbing had been recovered from the crime scene.

Police also said that Shahid had been fighting a court case against his brother-in-law Muhammad Ishaq, a retired colonel, over the property.

They said Shahid, who had returned from the United States two months ago, wanted to sell the farm house but Ishaq was opposed to it. Ishaq had obtained a stay order against the move from a court. Ishaq and his wife had been occupying one of the two buildings on the farm.

Sub Inspector Muhammad Islam said the bodies had been locked in one of the rooms of the house where Mansha Hussain, his wife and Shahid Hussain had lived. He said the bodies were recovered by Rescue 15 officials called to the scene by Ishaq after their milkman told him that no one from the other building was opening the door.

SI Islam said Mansha’s wife, a cripple, was found lying in her bed when police broke into the house. “She said she had not seen her husband and son for two days.

She said she could smell the stench from the room next door for over a day,” the SI said. He added that a door to the room was later broken and bodies recovered.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2011.