Daily Times

Police have arrested a suspect believed to be linked to the string of child murders in the Chunian area of Kasur, a private TV channel reported on Friday.

The man, named Shehzad, came to the notice of the police when his brother filed a missing person’s report on September 22. According to the police complaint, Shehzad took the family’s tractor to the market in the Chunian area and then disappeared.

Police used Shehzad’s four mobile numbers to trace his location. After finding him in Rahim Yar Khan district, he was arrested and brought to Kasur for DNA testing.

Those privy to developments within the police circles tell Geo.tv, on the condition of anonymity, that they suspect Shehzad may be behind the killing of four children, the first of whom went missing in June. Bodies of three of the children were found near a garbage heap earlier this month.

One reason for linking Shehzad to the crime, says officials, is that when the police searched for his phone’s location, in the past few days, one of his numbers was found to be in the area from where a boy, Faizan, went missing.

However, the newly-appointed district police officer (DPO) Kasur, Zahid Nawaz Marwat, said it was too early to pin the blame. “The investigation is continuing,” he told the media, “Several suspects have been picked up and questioned so far. As for Shehzad, he is also one of such suspects. He is not yet an accused yet. We will have to wait for the DNA test results.”

On September 17, police in Kasur found the body of eight-year-old Faizan and the remains of two other children, who went missing in the last few months. A medical report later confirmed that Faizan had been sexually assaulted before being killed. Police are now on the hunt for the killer. In the past few days, over 500 men, aged between 18-40 years, have been called in for DNA testing.