LANDI KOTAL: The caretaker of a Tirah valley seminary and his son on Friday confessed to killing two minor brothers over an old family dispute.

The bodies of Munsif, 8, and Asif, 5, were found in the seminary’s deep sewer on Thursday.

The two, who were enrolled in the seminary located near their house in Narhaw village of Maidan area, had gone missing on March 7 after they attended classes.

District police officer Mohammad Iqbal told Dawn that Mughal Baz and his son, Ishaq, told investigators that they killed the two brothers by pushing them into the sewer.

He said Mughal Baz was a close relative of the minors’ father, Shafeeq, and an old dispute between their families led to the killings.

Cite old family dispute as reason for crime

Mr Iqbal said the preliminary investigation had revealed that Shafeeq’s grandfather had ‘sold’ Mughal Baz’s stepmother after the death of the latter’s father against her consent years ago.

He added that Shafeeq later got hold of some joint land property of the family in Bara-Kajoori area after it was forced to leave Tirah due to the invasion of Taliban militants.

The DPO said Shafeeq was also accused of selling an AK-47 rifle without the consent of the Maghul Baz family as the weapon was a joint ‘property’.

He said Mughal Baz was arrested 10 days ago along with at least 10 other suspects and was kept at the Shah Kas Levies Centre for investigation but he didn’t confess to his crime until the bodies were recovered by his investigation team through an ‘extensive and systematic search operation’.

Also in the day, some residents torched the house of Mughal Baz and demanded of the police to hand him over to the local lashkar for punishment in line with the local customs.

The security forces opened fire to disperse the mob injuring a man, who breathed his last in a hospital.

Deputy commissioner Mehmud Aslam Wazir said no one would be allowed to take the law into their hands and the culprits would be dealt with strictly.

He said the situation in Tirah was under control.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2020