KASUR: In an important development in child abuse cases in the Kasur district, the serial killer behind the rape-cum-murder of four minor boys in Chunian has been arrested.
DPO Kasur Zahid Nawaz Marwat said 27-year-old Suhail Shehzad had been identified using polygraphic and DNA testing. Geo-fencing for 1,649 suspects was done and DNA samples of 1,543 were tested, adding that 26,251 population was surveyed, 4684 houses checked, total 1734 DNA samples collected, 8307 cell phones data analysed and 904 rikshaw drivers & 3117 suspects were interrogated.
Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said, “The case against him will be pursued in an anti-terrorism court and I will oversee the Chunian case myself”.
This is a major breakthrough in child abuse case in Kasur after appointment of Zahid Nawaz Marwat as new DPO Kasur. Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered major overhaul in the district’s police setup and removed District Police Officer (DPO) Kasur Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani. Then, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Capt (R) Arif Nawaz Khan made a good decision to have strategically appointed Zahid for solving this case.
Having past experience of solving cases like Zainab, DPO Kasur Zahid Nawaz Marwat devised a comprehensive plan to catch the culprit and fulfill this tough task. He used Shehzad’s four mobile numbers to trace his location. After finding him in Rahim Yar Khan district, Shehzad was arrested and brought to Kasur for DNA testing. The tedious and sincere efforts of DPO Kasur Zahid Nawaz Marwat played major role in execution of child abuse cases including Zainab case and now rape-cum-murder case of Suhail Shehzad.
Serial Killer Suhail Shehzad
Sources said the suspect is a resident of Rana Town and committed the crimes in June, August and September. Four children — aged between eight and 12 years — had gone missing since June with the latest, Faizan, 8, disappearing on the night of September 16. The remains of three were found on September 17 from sand dunes near Chunian bypass.
Shehzad grabbed the police’s attention after 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.
One reason for linking Shehzad to the crime, officials said, was that when the police searched for his phone’s locations over the past few days, one of his numbers was found to be in the area from where Faizan had gone missing. Shehzad had also spent five years in jail after being convicted for sodomy a few years ago.
In the last few years, Kasur has been rocked by multiple incidents of abuse, rape and killing of children. In January 2018, six-year-old Zainab Ansari was found dead in a trash heap near Shahbaz Khan Road, five days after she went missing. Hers was the 12th such incident to have occurred within a 10-kilometre radius in Kasur over a 12-month period. Her death had sparked nationwide protests and outrage.
The prime suspect, Imran Ali, had been arrested on Jan 23, 2018, and on June 12 the Supreme Court had turned down his appeal against the death sentence, noting that he had admitted to committing similar offences with eight other minor victims. Ali was subsequently executed in October.
In 2015, Kasur’s Hussain Khanwala village had attracted worldwide attention when a child pornography ring was busted. Hundreds of video clips had emerged showing a gang forcing dozens of minor boys and girls to perform sexual acts and filming them. The gang had also used the videos to blackmail families of the children and extorted millions in cash and jewellery from them.
