LAHORE, Dec 23: A college student was found murdered on Thursday three days after she was allegedly kidnapped for ransom. A resident of Green Colony, Kot Lakhpat , Yousuf Kamboh, a retired Wapda official, told police that his son dropped his youngest daughter Asima, 19, at her college, but she never returned.

Her body was found stuffed in a bag close to a drain in Liaquatabad, which was spotted by a scavenger. The girl had been strangled, said initial autopsy report. The extracts from her body were sent for chemical examination.

The body was handed over to the family. On the evening of the day she went missing, Mr Kamboh received a phone call for Rs1.5 million ransom. He received another call next morning with threats that his daughter would be killed if police were involved.

The police would not own the two calls or would try to hide the ransom aspect of the crime even after the murder. However, a police source said a team set up after the Wapda employee reported the incident to them on Dec 5 traced the first call made from a PCO in Liaquatabad and the other from Tibbi City.

"Her captors seemed to have been following the family closely and, on learning about the police report, killed the girl to avoid identity and arrest," he added. Investigation police chief Chaudhry Shafqaat said some people close to the family had been taken into custody for questioning, and claimed to have got clues leading to the killers.

Meanwhile, police claimed to have arrested four men allegedly involved in a Dec 4 robbery-cum-murder in Badami Bagh. Arifa was shot dead by the alleged robbers when she was going to attend an engagement ceremony along with her father Muhammad Riaz of Rawalpindi.

City division investigation police followed clues and arrested Zubair, Javed, Shakir and Aurangzeb. Police claimed that they have confessed to committing the crime.