Askari III case: Bawany family ‘murderer’ was a jilted driver

Police claim to have arrested Ishaq, but he says he was turning himself in.

KARACHI: It was part greed, part anger and a little desperation that apparently drove Muhammad Ishaq to take the lives of five people. He spent Rs150 on a kitchen knife from Saddar, snuck into the house at Askari III and killed the entire family.

Ishaq was swift. In a matter of minutes, he can’t recall exactly how many, he stabbed four adults, giving them little room to escape. But it was the 13-year old girl who tried to survive. She ran to her room and closed the door.

“I didn’t let her lock it,” said the 32-year-old self-confessed murderer, his face hidden under a piece of cloth, his voice unshaken. “I pushed open the door and jumped over her. Then I stabbed her too.”

The bodies of Arif Bawany, his wife Zainab Bawany, son Zubair, daughter-in-law Aliya and granddaughter Rida were found from the family house on February 29.

Ishaq, a former driver of the family, claims that he went to the house to rob it. “I took the knife only to defend myself.”

But he was also angry that they refused to give him his job back. “I worked there six months and then took leave for ten days. When I came back, Arif sahib said I was an alcoholic and that I gambled. I needed money to pay off a loan. And it made me really angry.”

Initially the police hinted at a family feud. Nothing expensive, other than their cell phones, was missing. But it emerged that the Memon family, which once owned a textile firm, was not well off these days.

Six gold bangles, two earrings and rings were all Ishaq could find. All of it, including the stolen cell phones, has since been recovered.

The police claim to have arrested Ishaq from Cantt Station where he owned a barber shop. But Ishaq told journalists that he was trying to turn himself in.

“The guilt was killing me. I should be hanged,” he said. “Yesterday, (Monday) night I even tried to confess my crime to a police constable. But he was too busy and didn’t listen to me.” Crime Branch SSP Farooq Awan said that Ishaq was caught after he tried to use his own SIM in one of the stolen cell phones. “He is the only suspect. We have no reason to believe that he had an accomplice.”

“They were all killed in an unprofessional way,” said Awan. “The way he stabbed them in the chest shows that he was in a hurry.”

Investigation officer SI Siddiq said that Ishaq had been under suspicion. “We had spoken to all the other [household workers] at the place. He was the only one missing.”

Police have not been able to explain why a driver who was sleeping in the servant quarters and a young cook who was resting by the main door didn’t hear the screaming and shouting.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2012.