GUJRAT: The Gujranwala police on Monday arrested a ‘serial killer’ involved in kidnapping and killing of four people, including a woman and her two children as well as a 13 years old boy after snatching valuables from them in different hits.

Gujranwala CPO Dr Ghias Gul told reporters at a news conference on Monday that police found two unidentified bodies of a 32 years old woman and her five years old son along the bank of canal near the Citi Housing Society on Feb 10.

Both the deceased, he said, had been slain with a sharp-edged weapon. They were later identified as Malaika and her son Muhammad Ahmed and a case of double murder was lodged on the report of a police official.

The CPO said a special investigation team under SP Civil Lines Imran Khan and DSP Hameed Virk was constituted that used modern techniques and traced a suspect namely Haroon Javed who was nabbed while making an attempt to flee to Karachi from Lahore via train.

The suspect, he said, had confessed to have killed the woman and her two children – eight months old daughter Mubara through asphyxiation and threw her body into the canal. The body of deceased girl was recovered from the canal on the identification of the suspect.

The suspect revealed that he had killed three people of a family just to snatch gold ornaments the woman was wearing in her ears.

The suspect belongs to the same area of Alam Chowk where the deceased woman resided.

The CPO said that the suspect had also revealed to have killed 13 years old boy Rehan Ali of Mado Khalil locality in the precincts of Ladhewala police on Dec 20 last.

The suspect, he said, had kidnapped the boy to snatch a bridal dress from him and later murdered him. The boy had been sent by his father to deliver the dress to a customer in a nearby vicinity.

A case of kidnapping of that boy had been lodged with the police against the unidentified suspects on the report of his father Muhammad Imran who ran an embroidery factory in the area.

The CPO commended the police team for tracing and arresting the killer.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2026