SWABI: The district police have arrested four persons, including two women, for their involvement in the murder of a three-year-old child.

District police officer Javid Iqbal told media persons on Monday that one of the women, the victim’s stepmother, confessed to the police that she strangulated the child and then with the help of her relatives threw his body in a deserted place. Later, the police recovered the body. The incident occurred in Maneri village.

He said the woman killed her ‘half son’ because she did not want him to inherit his father’s property, and that to take revenge for the beatings she received at the hands of her husband. The DPO said the father of the victim had registered an FIR in city police station that his three-year-old son had gone missing from his home. A police team was constituted to trace the killers.

Mr Iqbal said the minor’s father had married three women and one of them had died.

He said during investigations, the accused mother said when the child entered her room she strangulated him, and put him in a box. Later, she informed his mother and brother, who disposed of the body in a deserted place.

The police officer said the arrested persons included the killer woman, her mother, brother and a relative.

ONE KILLED: Rivals attacked and injured two brothers with daggers in Kotha village here on Monday, with one of the injured later succumbed to his injuries in hospital, said police and doctors. The two brothers were attacked over a trivial issue.

Registering FIR injured Tanveer Khan told police that Khaseeb Khan and Sami Khan attacked them with daggers. He said they were taken to hospital, where his brother, Tauqeer Khan, was pronounced dead.

TUSSLE INTENSIFIES: A tussle between PTI-led Topi tehsil government and All Neighbourhood Councils Ittehad Topi (ANCIT) has further intensified after registration of a case against four councillors and a local journalist by TMA in city police station for taking away a transformer from the municipality’s premises.

The tussle erupted after the ANCIT was formed in February, with PTI leaders accusing PML-N MPA Shiraz Khan of forging the alliance to harm the PTI tehsil government.

“We know who is behind the grouping,” Mohammad Younas, Tehsil Topi Naib Nazim, said.

However, when contacted, MPA Shiraz Khan told Dawn that he never interfered in the tehsil government affairs. “I plainly reject the allegations hurled by PTI leaders and Topi government representatives,” he said.

The latest situation, according to the TMA officials, surfaced after ANCIT leaders came in a procession and took a transformer away from the TMA premises without permission, to be installed in Shaheedan village, where a transformer had burnt.

The officials said FIR was lodged against councillors Zahir Shah, Farman Bahadar, Muslim Bahadar, Biladar Khan and president of Topi Press Club Syed Arif Shah.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016