ISLAMABAD: A serial killer is on the loose in Kasur while incidents similar to that of six-year-old Zainab have been surfacing in the district since 2015, Additional Inspector General of Punjab police Abubakar Khudabaksh conceded before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“A similar incident also took place in October last and when the police formed a joint investigation team (JIT) and conducted DNA tests, it transpired that the culprit is a serial killer,” the Additional IG told a three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar. The bench had taken up the Zainab murder case on a suo motu basis.

Violence and riots sparked in the city of Kasur when Zainab was found dead in a rubbish dump on Jan 9 after being raped and strangled. She was abducted from near her house on Jan 5.

The Additional IG informed the court that the police had so far conducted 400 DNA tests and interrogated 1,100 suspects. He said that at least eight cases of similar nature happened in 2015 in the area that falls within the jurisdiction of three police stations.

Serial killer still at large, concedes additional Punjab IG

The chief justice assured the Punjab police that the court did not want to pressurise the investigation as all it wanted to see was that the police should move in a right direction. He summoned the chairman of the Punjab forensic test laboratory as well as the JIT head investigating the crime for Sunday in Lahore.

The court did not want to see that some innocent person was arrested and then killed in a fake police encounter, the chief justice said, expressing the hope that the real offender would be nabbed.

The Zainab case was like a test case for the Punjab police, as the entire nation was in anxiety, the chief justice observed. He said faulty prosecution always led to the release of criminals leaving the courts to face criticism for acquitting the culprits.

This was the joint failure of both the government and the police that a serial killer could not be arrested by them, the court observed.

The chief justice said the apex court would soon hold a seminar in which senior puisne judge Asif Saeed Khosa would highlight flaws in investigation process and prosecution.

When during the proceedings Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan pointed out that the footage showing Zainab going along with someone on Jan 5 was of a very poor quality, Additional IG Khudabaksh explained that the footage was taken by private cameras and not the one installed by the government.

In its earlier report, the police had informed the court that footage of different cameras installed along nearby roads and streets had been collected and examined by investigators, with the result that the special IT team managed to obtain the footage of an unidentified suspect taking the girl in a remote area of Peru Wala Road, Kasur.

At this, the chief justice also questioned the use of the Safe City projects and the expensive advertisements to showcase such schemes.

Kasur child abuse cases

The chief justice said he had directed the court office to fix the cases of Kasur child abuse before a bench soon.

He also regretted that due to lack of proper laws for the protection of children, the hearing of the Tayyaba torture case remained inconclusive.

The chief justice said he had approached Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani as he had done some work for judicial reforms and even received some documents from him. A meeting with Mr Rabbani would be arranged soon, the chief justice explained, suggesting that both parliament and the judiciary should come up with some solution through mutual efforts.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2018