Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: The knife attacks targeting working women in the garrison city of Rawalpindi came to an end when the knife attacker was held after a joint combing operation by police and other law enforcement agencies during late Thursday, along with four suspected accomplices.

Muhammad Ali, 24, allegedly attacked 17 women, one of whom (a nurse by profession) succumbed to her injuries, police sources said. Police earlier called the attacker ‘a crazy man’.

Two of the four suspected accomplices identified as Siraj, Asad Ahmed, Afsar Masih and Ilyas, previously served prison sentences at Adiala Jail, police sources said, adding that the men allegedly carrying out the attacks were inspired by films and targeted the women ‘for fun’ in order to spread panic.

The ‘Crazy Man’ namely Muhammad Ali allegedly attacked working women over a period of about two months at night during power outages hours, sources said. The suspected accomplices facilitated him in the knife attacks.

On Sunday night, Ali allegedly stabbed a nurse of Fauji Foundation Hospital to death and injured two others in the span of one hour in Morgah.

Police sources said that the five men will be presented before a court to get their physical remand to investigate the matter.

Last year, three men were arrested for a series of similar attacks in Sahiwal that targeted women ‘moving independently’ in public spaces.

Earlier on Thursday, after panic spread in Morgah and surroundings police made statement that the alleged killer was a dropout of a Madrassah (religious seminary) and committed the crime due to some mental
disorder.

On Wednesday, some unidentified motorcyclists attacked a girl with a knife in Morgah Police Station jurisdiction as she came out of her house along with her father, eye witnesses said, adding that the girl was rushed to a nearby hospital where her condition was stated to be stable.

On Tuesday police held four suspects in connection with the knife attacks in Morgah area. The suspects were rounded up on the basis of a tip off provided by locals and the families of the victims. They are being interrogated for the alleged crime, police sources revealed.

In another knife attack occurred on Sunday (August 7), unidentified men killed a female nurse and wounded another.

The Rawalpindi police had been receiving complaints about a string of knife attacks on women in the area during the last five months.