Lahore man claims to have killing 100 kids

Lahore man claims to have killing 100 kids
KAMAL SIDDIQI

KARACHI, DEC 3: In what may well be the worst murder case in the history of the sub-continent, a man has claimed to have killed one hundred children over a period of several months to avenge an earlier attack on himself and his family in Lahore. The case came to light on Thursday evening.

On Wednesday, Lahore police received a letter from one Javed Akhtar from Ravi Road area, a poor locality, claiming that he had killed one hundred children and he was now going to commit suicide. The police officials didn't take the letter seriously but some enterprising journalists located the house, which was by than deserted. They scaled the compound wall to find notes telling them about the sacks in one of the house rooms filled with clothes and shoes of the victims.

When the journalists entered the house, there were notes pasted on the walls telling how Akhtar, who claimed to be a man out to settle scores, murdered children aged 12 to 14 after luring them to his house from the nearby shrine, Data Darbar.

Thejournalists, who then called the police, also located three drums filled with acid with body parts of three children in it.

In his letter, Akhtar claimed he had killed the children after criminally assaulting them and before disposing of the bodies, he dissolved them in acid. The reason why he killed the children, he wrote, was to avenge his own `murder' - a reference to an attack earlier this year by his own servants who not only looted his house but also raped him.

Akhtar claimed in his letter that the "mothers of the hundred boys should also cry like my mother did after I was attacked". In his letter, he held the police responsible for the crime that he committed because they had released his attackers without punishing them.

The police are yet to trace Akhtar but have recovered a cassette player, empty bottles and a diary containing the names and photographs of several children suspected to be victims.

The police said they have no clues as to how or where the bodies of the victims were disposedof, but have launched a massive manhunt to trace Akhtar.

Incidentally, the area in which Akhtar's house is located is known hideout for criminals, particularly those engaged in smuggling and manufacturing counterfeit products.