RAWALPINDI: Police have tracked down the killers of a student whose body was found in a shrine in Sadiqabad on Monday. One of the alleged killers appears to be the victim’s cousin, who masterminded the kidnapping and murder due to family property differences.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Malik Karamat told Dawn that both the killers of Mohsin Sagheer, 13, were captured by police on Monday and had confessed to killing the child.

He said the motive behind the murder was family differences, because one of the suspects – the victim’s cousin – was upset about the relationship between his parents and their relatives, and also because of a property issue within the family.

Both the alleged killers – the victim’s cousin and his friend – confessed to kidnapping and killing the boy, and writing a letter to the victim’s parents demanded Rs8million in ransom.

The sub-inspector (SI) who is leading the investigation, Abdul Majeed, said that one of the suspects had previously made an attempt on the victim’s life, but failed.

Mr Majeed said the suspect kidnapped his cousin by asking if he would go to buy a kite from a nearby market and took him to a shrine in Sadiqabad. He was later joined by his accomplice, who helped strangle the victim.

He said that after killing the boy, the suspect returned home and left a ransom note at the victim’s house.

“Both the killers had planned to divide the money – Rs2million would go to [the accomplice] and the rest to [the mastermind],” Mr Majeed said. He said that the victim’s cousin also purchased a gun for a candidate participating in the local government elections from Lahore and provided it to him.

Both suspects were produced before the Anti-Terrorism Court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody for seven days.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015

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