Couple’s mortal remains were found during wheat harvesting.
LAHORE: Police have identified the skeletons of two people found in wheat fields in the Hayer area in April as those of a coupe murdered allegedly over honour.
Senior police officers said in a news conference that the couple had gone missing from an area near Hayer and a case of abduction had been registered against unidentified people. The skeletons had been found during wheat harvesting a couple of weeks later. Presuming that the bodies had been dumped after murder, the police registered another case.
Investigation Officer Muhammad Ayub told The Express Tribune said that the suspected murderers had been traced in Charsadda with the help of the phone record of the deceased. They had taken a phone with them after the murder and used it by changing Sims. He said the victims Nadeem and Mukhtara Bibi had been neighbours of prime suspect, Amjad Khan. Both the men worked as guards on farms and had family terms.
The investigator said police investigation had revealed that Amjad suspected that Nadeem had repeatedly molested his wife and he had hatched a plan to take revenge. He moved his family to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, returned to the neighborhood some months and asked Nadeem to see him in the fields, where he and his accomplice Gohar Malangi strangled the man, the official said.
Meanwhile, Nadeem’s wife reached the spot and offered re-sistance, upon which the duo strangled her also. They covered the bodies under grass in the fields to hide them. The remains of the deceased were found during harvesting in the fields.
Sub-Inspector Ayub said the sus-pects had taken away the mobile phones and other belongings of the victims, which had eventually helped trace them. SP Furqan Bilal and DSP Faisal Sharif shared details of the case in the news conference. The police announced that they had also solved a case of robbery in a jew-elery shop.
Investigations Officer Shahid Khan jewellery worth Rs50 million had been taken away a man who had broken into the outlet on the eve of Eid uL Fitr in a housing society in the Sundar area. The suspect had stolen over 1kg of gold after cutting the lock and shutter of the shop. He had also taken away he boxes of the jewellery, torched them and erased his fingerprints while fleeing.
However, the thief was traced after the police received a tip. The official said the suspect, Ali Hassan, had criminal record. He drove a vehicle from Thokar Niaz Beg to the locality and had married a woman who travelled on his vehicle. He had also moved in with to well-off family of his wife. He had earlier been involved in minor thefts.
NEW CRIME INVESTIGATION UNIT
To combat rising incidents of crime, the Organized Crime Unit has been created as an investigations body independent of the District Investigations Branch. The new unit was created through the “Police Order (Amendment) Ordinance 2023”, which was passed by the Punjab Governor on Saturday. A Deputy Inspector General (DIG) will be heading the unit in the provincial capital, an SSP in cities and an SP in the districts.
The Governor exercised his powers under Article 128 of the Constitution to pass the amendment as the Punjab Assembly is not in session. In the new amendment, an Article 18B has been in-serted after Article 18A of Police Order (2002).
According to the inserted Article 18 B-3, henious offences like kid-napping for ransom, extortion, robbery, robbery-cum-murder, human trafficking and narcotics smuggling will be under the purview by Organised Crime Unit. Additionally, the unit will investigate inter-provincial and inter-district criminal gangs.
Since the crime ratio increased in the provincial capital, the Lahore Police restructured its investigations wing. However, the issue was taken before Lahore high Court by a citizen claiming that it was illegal as there was no seat of DIG CIA. The court declared it against rules and regulations and stopped DIG CIA.
MUHAMMAD SHAHZAD
