NAROWAL: A young man murdered his two teenage maternal cousins, suspecting that their parents had killed his sister through black magic about a decade ago.

The suspect, identified as Aftab alias Chand, had put the bodies of his 19-year-old cousin, Anmol, and her 15-year-old brother, Salman, in trunks at his home.

The young children of Javed Masih, a resident of the Hunterpur area of Sialkot, had suddenly disappeared from their house.

The family started searching for the siblings but remained clueless. Javed reported the matter to the Muradpur Police Station, which launched an investigation.

The investigating officer visited Javed’s house as well as the house of his brother, Pervaiz Masih. Pervaiz’s young son, Aftab, told the police that his family had gone to attend a birthday party and there was no one at home.

Police started a comprehensive search of Parvez’s house in view of suspicious circumstances while Aftab escaped.

During the search, police found the bodies of Anmol and Salman in trunks from the house.

Sialkot District Police Officer Faisal Kamran reached the spot on receiving the information of the double murder.

Khurram Shehzad, the spokesperson for the district police, said the DPO formed a team, headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police Rana Nadeem Tariq, which arrested the suspect, Aftab, within 12 hours.

The spokesman said Aftab had confessed to murdering his cousins with a knife. He told police that his uncle Javed’s family had killed his sister, Alisha, 10 years back with black magic and he had avenged her murder.

Muradpur police registered an FIR against four persons, namely Aftab and three unidentified persons, on the complaint of Javed.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2022