LAHORE: Lahore police arrested nine suspects involved in three separate cases of murder and kidnap for ransom.

The murder incidents included the killing of two Christian sisters in Kahna and a minor boy by his teenage brother in Kamahan.

The announcement was made by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Investigation Shariq Jamal accompanied by SSP Investigation Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani and City Division SP Investigation Zohaib Nasrullah Ranjha during a press conference on Friday.

In the first case, police arrested three suspects involved in killing two Christian sisters in Kahna. Both of them were factory workers.

Teenager held for sexually assaulting, killing minor brother

Sajida, 25, and her sister Abida, 23, of Kahna, went missing on Nov 26, 2020 and a kidnap case was registered against unidentified persons on the complaint of their parents.

Later, bodies of both sisters were recovered from a drain on different occasions from the same locality.

The girls’ parents had alleged that their daughters were killed and their bodies were thrown into the drain. They had nominated two suspects, the coworkers of the girls in a factory, for allegedly abducting and killing their daughters.

The police arrested three suspects, Naeem, Mumtaz and Sajjad, who confessed to their crime of killing the girls over a personal dispute.

DIG Jamal said the suspects had confessed to their crime of slitting the throats of the girls and throwing their bodies into the drain. He said the girls were having a relationship with the suspects and had recorded videos of some private moments.

He claimed that girls were involved in blackmailing the suspects and were demanding money from them. The suspects, Naeem, Mumtaz and Naeem, called both the sisters to their residence on the day they went missing. They slit the throats of the girls and threw their bodies into a drain.

In another case, a teenage boy was arrested for sexually assaulting and killing his minor brother.

The eight-year-old victim boy of Kamahan village went shopping with his 14-year-old brother on Jan 6 and went missing. The younger one’s body was recovered from a drain on Jan 8 in Nishtar Colony.

DIG Jamal revealed that the elder brother was arrested who confessed to his crime of sexually assaulting his brother and later killing him with a brick. He threw the body into the drain after the murder.

In the third case, five suspects were arrested for kidnapping a teenage boy for ransom in the New Anarkali police jurisdiction.

The DIG said five suspects were arrested for kidnapping Aleem and Rs2.5m ransom was recovered from them. The suspects were identified as Zeeshan, Usama, Roman, Ali Riaz and Qasim Ali.

Mr Jamal said one of the suspects, Qasim Ali, was working in the house of the victim and had information about the presence of money in the house.

He said Qasim had hatched the plan to kidnap Aleem and demand ransom from the family.

“The suspect with his four other accomplices kidnapped Aleem from outside his house at gunpoint and took him to a deserted place in a rickshaw,” the DIG said.

He added that the suspects had demanded Rs5m as ransom by calling Aleem’s father on WhatsApp and released the victim after getting Rs2.5m.

He said the suspects were arrested and the ransom amount was also recovered.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2021