Four arrested for double murder

"The police had also recovered the bodies on indication of the suspects," says SSP Sadiq Ali Dogar.

FAISALABAD:

Balochni police have arrested four men who they say have confessed to killing a woman, wife of one of them, and her father nine months ago over a domestic dispute.

SSP (Operations) Sadiq Ali Dogar said on Friday that the police had also recovered the bodies on indication of the suspects.

He said Mehmoodul Hasan and his father Maqsood Ahmed were arrested in a raid led by SSP (Investigation) Mujahid Akbar. Later, the team arrested their accomplices Aftab Ahmed and Muhammad Shaukat, uncles of Hasan, on his indiction.

The SSP said the suspects had confessed to killing Abida Parveen, Hasan’s wife, and her father Muhammad Boota, a resident of Chak 7-JB Nishatabad, after Parveen protested about her alleged sexual assault by Aftab Ahmed. “They said Boota was killed because Parveen had raised the matter with him as well,” he said. The SSP said the suspects had denied the assault charge.

SSP Dogar said they had tracked down Hasan and his father on indication of their two neighbours arrested in another murder case by the Sitiana police. He said the neighbours, identified as Akbar and Zohaib, had alleged that Hasan and his father had abetted them in the other murder (for which they were arrested) as well. The suspects, however, denied the charge.

Originally, the Balochni police were investigating two kidnapping cases registered by relatives of Maqsood Ahmed and Muhammad Boota.

The SSP said the suspects had gone into hiding after killing Boota and Parveen and staged Maqsood Ahmed’s kidnapping to prevent anyone from suspecting them. Boota’s kidnapping case was registered by his relatives.

The SSP quoted the suspects as saying that Boota was poisoned to death during his visit to their house following Parveen’s murder. “They had told Boota that Parveen was kidnapped,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2012.