‘Moralistic urges’: Cheechawatni vigilante held after six-month chase

He stabbed 50 women for venturing out alone and ‘spreading vulgarity’.

MULTAN:

After a six-month police chase, the man stabbing women in Cheechawatni sub-district of Sahiwal for venturing out of their houses was arrested on Wednesday.

Sahiwal district police arrested the man in a covert operation. The police claim that the man confessed to the crime and stated that he had stabbed the women because “they were spreading vulgarity in society and I got immense gratification from stabbing them”.

Police said they had been looking for the man for the past six months. Three police teams had been constituted for the purpose, one of them in plainclothes.

The man is accused of stabbing 50 women in public places in Cheechawatni over a period of six months. Police said 30 women had filed complaints with the police and the rest had gone to hospitals for treatment but did not alert the police for fear of reprisal. The police had learned about those incidents from the hospitals.

Sahiwal District Police Officer Khurram Ali Shah told The Express Tribune that they had a received a lead on the culprit two months ago. They traced the culprit and observed him before moving in to arrest him. The DPO said police teams in plain clothes were dispatched throughout Cheechawatni and the operation was monitored by City police Station House Officer Tahir Ijaz.

The man struck again in April, he said. “That is how we identified our target.” The DPO said the man was 26 years old and a resident of Block 7, Cheechawatni. He worked at his father’s fruit shop near a roadside donkey cart repair shop. DPO Shah said the man had begun his crime spree by attacking the women who visited the fruit shop. He then spread out, targeting women unaccompanied by men on roads or in marketplaces. He said the man would often strike while riding his motorcycle and used the same knife he had at his fruit shop.

Some policemen involved in the investigation, on condition of anonymity, said the man had been brainwashed by local clerics who had convinced him that his actions were ‘very noble, moral and religious’. The man has been a part of several tableeghi visits and seminaries.

Police said the criminal had confessed, saying that ‘immoral activities’ in society had led to its present dismal state. Women wandering alone on roads had caused a social malaise that promoted vulgarity and unethical behaviour. “My attacks have controlled vulgarity in Cheechawatni... fearing my attacks, women now keep away from roads,” the criminal reportedly told the investigators. The DPO had announced a Rs100,000 reward for the man’s arrest or tip off. The area’s traders have announced a Rs100,000 reward for the police team.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2014.