Never-ending mystery: Iqra University student succumbs to burn injuries

The 22-year-old was kidnapped by unknown men and then set on fire before being dumped

KARACHI: The Iqra University student, who had been kidnapped and set on fire by unknown men, succumbed to his injures on Thursday, nearly a month and a half after the grisly incident. His death, however, has left behind a question mark on the performance of the police officers investigating the case.

Haris Javed, a final-year electrical engineering student, was reportedly kidnapped on February 16 by unidentified men in a double cabin pick-up from near his varsity. His abductors tortured him for three consecutive days, asking him 'to place an object somewhere’. The 22-year-old refused to acquiesce to their demand. The suspects then drove him out of the undisclosed place where he was being kept and dumped him in Mehmoodabad, after setting him on fire. He received 36 per cent burns on his upper body. His doctors had declared him out of danger. But fate had other things in mind.

Controversies abound

The case registered with the Baloch Colony police remained embroiled in controversies. From a note found on the half-burnt victim's person, the incident was suspected to be an act of terrorism in retaliation to the military offensive against militants in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency. "If the military operation does not end, other students will be meted out the same treatment," read the note, apparently written by his kidnappers.

The victim also supported this version in his statement that he gave while under treatment at the hospital. Based on his own story, it was suggested that Javed was being followed for some time and the kidnappers were tracking his movements.

Meanwhile, another side of the story surfaced when a rickshaw driver, Fayyaz, revealed that he might have dropped Javed and a girl, to Gizri may be on the day the boy went missing. The police dug more into it. Rumors mushroomed that perhaps it was a case of love and vengeance.

The family, however, vehemently denied this, pointing fingers on the credibility of the police officers investigating the case. "The police tried to escape the pressure mounting over them," said the bereaved father, Javed, who had just offered the funeral prayers of his young son. "I kept pushing the SHO to find my son. The police had no interest."

In mid-March, the case was transferred to the Counter-Terrorism Department on the orders of AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo, he said. There is still nothing to show for progress, though.

The head of the new investigation team, SSP Waris, told The Express Tribune that he had received the case recently. "The case is very complicated. It has so many angles and we are trying to ascertain the facts from all available resources."

Laid to rest

Haris' funeral prayers were offered at a local mosque in Akhtar Colony. His friends, classmates and neighbours who attended the prayers remember him as a patriotic and pious person. "The only places you would find him were at the mosque and at home. I never saw him wandering about," said a neighbor, Ahmed, who claimed he had known Haris since his childhood.

His classmates described him as a friendly person. "Although, we met at the varsity a few years ago, the bond he had created with everyone was decades-old," said Fahad.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2015.