LAHORE, Nov 12: Police claimed on Wednesday to have resolved the mystery shrouding the brutal killings of as many as 34 people, all dying from severe head injuries, over a period of two-and-a-half years, by arresting the ‘culprit’.

The accused, Muhammad Ameen (35), of Shamasabad village of Chunian tehsil, had allegedly also injured 74 people in various parts of the city by hitting their heads with blunt and heavy objects.

The police recovered two cell phones, a water pump, a bicycle and Rs5,000 in cash from the accused.

The police officers interrogating the accused said he denied having links with any foreign intelligence agency or any other organisation. They said the accused claims that he committed all these crimes because he wanted money.

Deputy Inspector General (investigation) Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera told media at his Qila Gujjar Singh office: “The accused has confessed to all crimes which he has committed alone, and he will also be thoroughly examined by psychiatrists.”

He said an identification parade would be held after the accused would be remanded in police custody on Thursday (today).

When asked how the injured could identify the accused who attacked them in sleep, the DIG claimed he could be identified in the light of the facts given in the FIRs.

He said the criminal record of the accused, his nomination in an FIR, bad repute, his two sketches drawn in the light of the information given by family members of two victims and investigation reports corroborate the case record to be submitted to the court. The police would submit separate challans of each incident, he added.

The DIG said a team comprising investigation in charge of Green Town police Muhammad Arshad and his seven subordinates led by Sadar division SP investigation Sarfraz Ahmed Falki got clues which led to the arrest of the accused. The team, he said, had been trying to nab the accused for the last five months, immediately after a murder in Johar Town.

The accused, he said, was wanted in no less than 25 murder cases and 50 hurt cases registered in various police stations of Saddar and Model Town divisions during the last two-and-a-half years.

About the modus operandi of the accused, the DIG said he would visit the targeted places from 12am to Fajar prayer, either on a bicycle or on foot. He would attack the poor people sleeping in open or inside under-construction buildings, hitting their heads with a blunt weapon like club, iron rod or brick, and take away cash and valuables, he added.

He would return to his native village with the booty and arrive in the city again after spending the money. However, a source said the accused was arrested from the outhouse of a local landowner, situated near Shamasabad village, with the help of cell phone tracking system about two weeks ago.

Police said the accused showed them all those spots where he committed the murders or attacked his victims.

The accused told the investigators that he started job at a hotel in 2005 and later worked as a roaming masseur in Masti Gate, Taxali, Data Darbar and Texali Gate areas. He said that soon he started stealing cash from the pockets of people sleeping in open.

In April 2006, he went to his sister’s house in Hujra Shah Muqeem, Okara district, where he attacked three people with blunt objects, killing two of them.

Three separate cases were registered by Hujra Shah Muqeem police.

Ameen was caught re-handed after the third incident in which he had injured a man with a wooden stick and stole cash and jewellery from his house. He was awarded seven-year term. Later, he was released on parole by the then prisons IG, Hafiz Muhammad Qasim, and was employed at the house of IG’s brother-in-law in Bahawalpur.

He then quitted the job after the completion of his sentence and returned to his native village. Later, he came to Lahore and started living with his brother Maqsood and then with his sister, Sarwar Bibi. He committed his first murder in Lahore on July 25, 2006.

An official source said the police got clue to the accused after he smashed the head of a man, Muhammad Sharif, sleeping at bench at Shah Di Khoi bus stop and took away Rs6,000 and a cell phone. The accused gave the phone to one Jaffar of his village.

The source said police traced the whereabouts of the accused with the help of EIMI number of the cell phone.

“I would attack people in their sleep to rob them of their money. It seemed an easy way to get money to make myself and my family comfortable, at least for sometime,” the suspect, Ameen, told Dawn in police custody on Wednesday.

He said neither he had any psychic problem nor he used drugs.