MULTAN, June 9: The district police are groping in the dark about the murder of a British teacher even after a week. Alan Cox, 60, was murdered in cold blood on May last by some assailants , who first stabbed him vigorously and then shot him dead at his rented house near busy Ghanta Ghar Chowk.

Alan had been living in Multan for 13 years where he used to conduct classes of spoken English. There are reports that he also offered his services to the aspirants for immigration to the UK and other European countries in documentation and processing of visas.

Some of the eyewitnesses had claimed that the assailants were six in number and they were riding three motorcycles. However, the police had rejected their claim by saying the area people had mistakenly considered his pupils, who had rushed to Kotwali police station to inform officials about the incident, as the culprits.

The police investigations revealed that the attackers were only three. Initially, the police sleuths had assumed it as terrorist act against a foreigner, but the postmortem prompted them to shift their focus towards some kind of personal grudge.

The investigators, despite having evidences that the deceased indulged in immoral act with his pupils, have failed to link his behaviour to his murder. The police have so far interrogated more than 100 people to find any lead.

Most of the people interrogated by the police are said to be Alan's students. Police sources said some of his students had admitted that they had sexual relationship with Alan.

When contacted, Multan DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal said the police had not completely ruled out the possibility of a terrorist act, but there were more clues as to suggest that it was a case of revenge.

He said there were reports that the deceased sexually abused some of his pupils promising them to arrange visas for them, but he could not fulfil his promises. Similarly, he added, Alan had recently been appointed examiner for the IELTS by the British Council.

Some of his pupils told police that Alan had once claimed that during marking of the papers some people had approached him to give them the marks required to qualify for IELTS. On his refusal, they allegedly threatened him with dire consequences.

Meanwhile, the United Professional Movers, an Islamabad-based firm, has received Alan's body from the local police on behalf of the British Embassy. Two officials of the firm accompanied the body to Islamabad.The body is likely to be sent back to his hometown Long sight in Manchester in the next couple of days.

PLEA: A local court rejected plea of an under-trial alleged drug smuggler to admit his rebuttal against his previous statement he had deposed against Asif Ali Zardari in a drug smuggling case at a court in Lahore.

Judge Imam Ali Shah observed on Wednesday that the plea of Mushtaq Malik alias Black Prince was unwarranted and not permissible, as there was no precedent that a court had played a role in a matter which was not its concern.

The judge said Asif Zardari was not an accused in any case under trial with his court. He directed Mushtaq to submit a new statement through his counsel with court hearing the case against Mr Zardari in the provincial metropolis.