KASUR, June 13: Three brothers, arrested for the murder of their cousin, have revealed to police that they killed their fourth brother in 1997 and father in 2006. Accused Akram, Yousaf and Afzal are in the police custody.

According to police, the spade of killing started in 1997 when Muhammad Abbas along with his three sons — Akram, Yousaf and Afzal — strangulated his fourth son Hamid Abbas. Hamid was a freshman at the local college and had stood first in the district in the matriculation examination. His father and brothers used to commit petty crimes and Hamid would often ask them mend their ways. Police said the accused and their father got annoyed with his repeated advices so much that they killed Hamid and buried him in the corridors of their house at Kot Usman Khan. The murder never came to the light and the accused continued with their activities.

In 2003, accused Akram, Yousaf, and Afzal killed their cousin Zubair suspecting that he had spelled black magic on their family. A-Division police registered a case against them under section 353/97 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

To avoid their arrest, the accused with their father and other family members fled to Burewala. Police declared the proclaimed offenders.

While living in Burewala, the three accused started pressuring their father to hand over his whole property to them. When he refused to do so, they slaughtered him six months ago and buried the body in their rented house and migrated to Deepalpur.

In Deepalpur, Akram, also a Hafiz-e-Quran, became a prayer leader at a mosque while Yousaf became a faith healer outside a shrine in the locality. On a tip off, police arrested the three brothers in Deepalpur for the murder of their cousin. During investigations the accused revealed the murders of their brother and father. Police were on its way to Burewala to recover the body of Abbas.