Five Punjab police personnel have been booked and arrested for their alleged negligence in the Sheikhupura murder case, in which eight villagers were hacked to death last week.

The murders, which were committed using an axe and an iron rod in and around the Hachar village of the city in the early hours of Saturday, took place three days after the suspect had assaulted another man and was briefly detained. The police, however, had let the suspect go following assurances given by his family, resulting in the gruesome murders later in the week.

On Sunday, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi directed the provincial police chief to conduct a departmental inquiry against the police station’s officials whose failure to take substantive action over the assault led to the murders.

“In light of the inquiry report, a case has been registered and all five officials guilty of negligence have been arrested,” a late-night post on Punjab police’s Twitter said on Sunday.

The tweet said locals had informed police about the suspect injuring people in the area a few days ago.

“Officials responsible for the criminal negligence are not entitled to any concession,” the tweet quoted the Punjab police chief as saying.

On Saturday, the district police officer had suspended the Narang station house officer (SHO) for not taking timely action against the suspect when he tried to attack another citizen around four days ago.

The suspect has been identified as Faiz Rasool, who is said to have been a teacher at a local private school. The murder case against him has been registered on the complaint of Ikhlaq Ahmed, a filling station employee.

The suspect had reportedly been detained by police just days earlier after attempting to attack another citizen with an axe. That citizen had remained unhurt after onlookers intervened and overpowered Rasool. Police eventually released the suspect after his family pleaded that he suffered from mental illness.

Taking notice of the matter, CM Elahi on Sunday blamed the “laziness and negligence” of police, leading to the murders of eight people.

“There is no room for such an SHO and staff in the police department,” Elahi said, as he directed the Punjab police to hold an inquiry into the incident under his own supervision, according to a police statement.

The police statement said the medical examination of the suspect was being conducted to ascertain his mental condition.

Suspect’s arrest

The suspect was arrested after a police constable had noticed him near a filling station, where the policeman had stopped to refuel his motorcycle.

The constable, Zafar Iqbal, had said in his video statement that he saw the suspect in blood-stained clothes, armed with an axe and an iron rod, near the filling station after he had killed two victims.

The suspect had fled the scene on a motorcycle, and the constable alerted the police before starting his chase. The constable pursued the suspect for four to five kilometres before nabbing him.