KARACHI, Nov 1: Police on Thursday arrested the Naib Peshimam of the Shah Faisal Colony mosque where the body of a 12-year-old boy was recently found. They also termed the cleric the prime suspect in the murder case.
Investigators told Dawn that the cleric, Qari Manzoor Ahmed, was formally arrested after questioning which indicated a strong possibility that he was in some way involved in the murder of Mohammed Anas.
“It will not take much time to resolve the case,” said Nasir Khan, the station house officer (SHO) of the Shah Faisal Colony police station. “It seems that an attempt was made to sexually abuse the boy, who was strangled to death when he resisted. However, our investigations are continuing,” said the officer.
Originally from Muzaffargarh in the Punjab, Anas had been living for the past four years with his maternal grandfather Qari Abdul Rahman, who teaches at the madrassa attached to Masjid-i-Aqsa in Shah Faisal No 5’s Bareli Colony. His body was found hanged in the mosque on Tuesday.
‘Suspect confessed’
The suspect allegedly killed the boy and then hung his body up in the mosque but the area police were not ready to believe that it was a case of suicide. After the initial findings of the post-mortem examination suggested murder, the police registered FIR No. 294/2007 under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The final report of the post-mortem examination has been reserved until the results of the chemical examination are received.
“The final report will accelerate the process since it was quite obvious that the boy was murdered,” said Javed Meher, the superintendent police (SP) of Shah Faisal Town. “The accused man has confessed to the killing but he may change his statement at any time, which will affect the police claims.” SP Meher explained that, therefore, the police had not made the confession the ground for the inquiries conducted so far but were investigating on the basis of the questions raised by the crime itself.
