KASUR: Police are scra­m­bling to find clues that could lead them to the culprit behind the rape and murder of Zainab in Kasur, while the deadline assigned to them by the Punjab police chief to make the arrest expired at 8pm on Saturday.

At least four agencies — the Counter Terrorism Dep­artment, the Intelligence Bureau, the Special Branch and the Punjab Forensic Science Agency — have been seized with the case and each agency has arrested suspects separately, while investigating the matter.

Separately, a new video, which apparently shows the kidnapper in the area she was abducted from, surfaced on various media websites on Saturday.

According to people in the area, the new video could further frustrate attempts to zero in on the culprit as the man in it appeared different from the man shown walking with Zainab on Peerowala Road in the previous video. Furthermore, the timestamp on the CCTV footage is 17:27 while Zainab is said to have been kidnapped at around 19:00.

They claim that the physical features of the suspect in the new video were different from the one shown in the earlier video. Moreover, the place where the new suspect is shown walking is located far away from the victim’s house. According to a local police official, investigators were not aware of this video. No one, including the local police, sensitive agencies or news websites, is ready to own or disclose the source of the new video regarding the suspect.

According to a source, the DNA results of over 120 samples of suspects had been received so far but none of them matched that of the serial killer.

While investigating earlier cases of rape and murder of children in Kasur, the police had claimed to have interrogated 5,000 suspects. They said they had sent 67 tissue samples for DNA testing and none of them had matched the profiles of the assaulters in the case of 11 victims.

Separately in Lahore, Muhammad Idrees, the regional police officer of Multan and head of the joint investigation team probing the case, briefed the Punjab police chief about the progress they had made so far. Sheikhupura RPO Zulfiqar Hameed, Kasur DPO Zahid Nawaz Murawwat and other members of the JIT were also present at this session.

The IGP was apprised about the actions taken by the police to trace the culprits, an official said, adding that the DNA report, the arrests of the suspects, CCTV footage of the suspect and other aspects of the case had come under discussion.

Punjab IGP Arif Nawaz Khan said the DNA test of all suspects must be conducted.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2018