SUKKUR: Wahabullah Indher — the man who allegedly slaughtered 11 members of his immediate family within his house in Maulvi Mohammad Saleh Indhar village, located near Pannu Aqil, during the night intervening Aug 18 and 19 — appeared to be a religious fanatic as he confessed to have “offered the sacrifice” to please Almighty Allah.

He kept repeating his statement before police since his arrest, in Adilpur town of Ghotki district, on Aug 19. Currently on a 14-day police remand, Wahabullah was quoted as claiming that he and his adult children had received an edict from Almighty Allah through a “same dream” asking them to offer the sacrifice in order to avert a “disaster looming large on us”.

Brother claims area police conducted four raids on house but could not rescue victims

Indhar had seven sons and four daughters. He said he and his [surviving] sons sacrificed his three younger sons — Mahmood Ahsan, 4, Mahmood Asad, 3, and a newborn — and the daughters — Iqra, 18, Isra, 8, Sobia, 6, and Hajani, 5 — with a dagger (which has been taken into custody the police). The others slain by the suspects were Wahabullah’s wife, Ruqayya, 42, his eldest son Habibullah’s pregnant wife, Naseema, 19/21, and their two children, Nazia, 3, and one-year-old Ali Sher. Habibullah and his three brothers, Hizbullah, Kaleemullah and Majid, are in police custody for their alleged complicity in the gruesome offence. According to Wahabullah, he killed his wife and Naseema and the rest were killed by his three surviving sons. Majid was not accompanying him when the arrests were made. He was taken into custody the next day.

Although Wahabullah appeared happy and satisfied over the horrible act, his estranged brother, Mian Asad, revealed startling facts about the whole episode and accused the area police of not daring to “rescue the victims despite making no less than four attempts”.

Speaking to local reporters, Mian Asad said he was alarmed when came to know that Wahabullah and his sons were on their way to Adilpur [on Aug 19] and alerted the police. He said he knew that they intended to kill a daughter of his [Asad’s] former (divorced) wife. He said his former wife’s family and the area police were timely alerted and the suspects were nabbed.

Mian Asad also revealed that the Cantonment police of Pannu Aqil were approached many days before the incident with plea to rescue the “hostages” who had been confined to the house for one week and nobody was allowed to enter the house. He said Wahabullah had a pistol and he kept threatening the inmates as well as any visitor trying to go inside.

He said the police made four attempts, the last one a day before the incident, during the week but never dared to lay hands on Wahabullah, who every time threatened to shoot anyone trying to enter the house. He wondered why the police could not realise gravity of the situation despite being alerted about the lives of a large number innocent persons being in danger.

According to Mian Asad, Wahabullah’s neighbours stated that the suspects kept reciting some strange rhymes and playing music by beating some mettle pots on the fateful night but all this stopped at around midnight.

Meanwhile, Sukkur DIG Fida Hussain Mastoi told the media on Sunday that a thorough investigation into the incident was under way and the suspects were being interrogated. He said an inquiry into the role of the area police was also being conducted and departmental action would be taken if negligence was proved.

Regarding a post-mortem examination of the victims, Pannu Aqil taluka Hospital medical superintendent Salahuddin Ujjan said there was no evidence suggesting that any of the deceased was drugged before being killed.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2020