October 31, 2007	Wednesday	Shawwal 18, 1428

HYDERABAD, Oct 30: Police found severed body parts of 33-year-old Haseeb stuffed in plastic bags and dumped in the water tank of a house in Bareli Colony of Latifabad Unit-11 on Tuesday after they searched the house of his friend who had been arrested a day ago.

Haseeb’s family suspected his friend, Nadeem Akhtar, after went missing three days ago. Nadeem confessed to slaughtering his friend after the body parts were found.

Haseeb Ahmed who taught at a government school in Tando Mohammad Khan and was resident of Latifabad Unit No-9 had fallen prey to the avarice of his friend, a sacked employee of Pakistan Railways Hyderabad.

Latifabad police have detained four nephews of Nadeem including Faheem, Waseem, Naeem and Amir.

When Haseeb told him that he had been buying prize bonds for a long time but had been unlucky so far, he saw his chance (to swindle some money out of friend) and told Haseeb to bring the prize bonds to him after having convinced him about his dexterity in faith-healing. “Since I owed money to several persons I decided to commit this act of savagery and bought daggers and plastic bags. I didn’t share the plan with anyone to avoid sharing money. Even Nasir, our common friend, was not aware of it. My nephews didn’t help me in any manner and I disposed of the body after cutting it up into 8 to 10 pieces,” he said.

He said he had asked Haseeb to bring 21 prize bonds. But “Haseeb brought 10 prize bonds on Oct 27. I told him to bring 11 more and he could arrange only two more. Then I gave him a chit (with a fake verse) and asked him to read it on a prayer-mat repeatedly while fixing his eyes on an earthen lamp kept in front of him.

“While he was doing it, I hit him in the head with a big dagger, used by butchers. He perhaps died instantly but for my own satisfaction I separated his neck from the torso and then cut up the body into pieces,” he recalled.

He said first he decided to stuff the body parts in a gunny bag and bury them in the graveyard but then dropped the idea.

Finally, he dumped them in the water tank of his home, he said. Haseeb’s family who suspected Nadeem searched for their relative but could not find any clue.

Disappointed, Haseeb’s elder brother sought help from TPO Ayub Durrani and police picked up Nadeem and Nasir.

Police kept Nadeem in the lock-up for a whole night and on Tuesday morning took him to his home where the foul stench coming from the water tank led them to the decomposed body parts. Blood-stained daggers and Haseeb’s clothes were also found in the house.

“I confess to the crime. I have done it intentionally perhaps under some kind of trance just to clear my debts. It’s certainly an act of bestiality on my part and I should have committed suicide because I don’t have any interest in life anymore,” Nadeem told Dawn.

Nadeem denied involvement of any other person in the crime but the TPO disbelieved him saying that he could not dispose of the body alone.

“I didn’t even get a hint of what my son is doing in the house,” said his mother, Rafiqa, a widow.