PESHAWAR, Aug 6: The police have arrested six suspects in connection with the murder of a Spanish researcher and his servant in the Chitral district, sources said.

“The suspects are all residents of the area,” a local police officer Pir Azam said here.

The Spaniard, named by relatives in France on Monday as Jordi Magraner, was found dead on Friday night in a house he was renting in a village near the town of Bumburate in Chitral’s Kailash valley.

Police here gave the victim’s identity as Federico Majraner and said he was also known as Jordi.

They said he was 35 and his throat had been slit with a sharp weapon. His 12-year old servant, Wazir Ali, was also found dead with his throat slit.

Another domestic employee, Asif Ali, 20, an Afghan refugee had disappeared, they said.

Police reported that a computer and a satellite phone were missing from his home.

Police suspect the missing Afghan may have slipped into neighbouring Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan, which is just four hours away by foot. Bumburate lies 25km from the Afghan border.

Police said efforts were under way to track the missing Afghan, who they believe could help the investigation. Magraner had been on a 12-year mission to track down the so-called snowman, locally known as barmano, which is said to be found in the mountains of Chitral, police and residents said.

Police said he was a frequent visitor to the area and stayed in a rented house in the Kalash valley, some 40km from Chitral.

Police said they received a faxed message from his brother, Andrew, asking that the funeral rites be performed by Magraner’s friends in Kalash, as the researcher had stated in his will.

A three-day funeral ceremony had begun in the Kalash valley, they said.—AFP