LAHORE, April 24: Another man was killed in a similar fashion in which seven people had already been murdered in the suburban areas of the city in the last two months.

The latest victim, identified as Asif Safdar Ali, 35, was a resident of Sahiwal. He was found lying dead in a pool of blood inside a mosque on Kala Khatai Road in Shahdara Town. He, too, had been clubbed to death. A blood splashed club was found lying beside him.

All the killings, except for one which took place in an Ichhra park, occurred in Badami Bagh, Lorry Adda, Ravi Road, Shafiqabad and Shahdara. The victims are said to be labourers belonging to poor segment and they all, except for one, were hit when they were sleeping in the open. A blood soaked club was found at most of the crime scenes. All the killings took place in the vicinity of timber shops.

Prayer leader Zafar Iqbal of the mosque told the police that Asif was his relative.

He said he did not know that Asif had come to visit him as he was inside his room. He claimed that he found the man lying dead when he came out of his room.

“The motive behind the killings is not clear yet,” city division SP Abdul Karim Rao told Dawn on Thursday.

He said police thought robbery could be a motive as cash was found missing in some of the killings. But, in some other hits the cash and other belongings of the dead were there, he added.

However, the SP claimed the deaths could not be termed as serial killing until substantial evidence to corroborate it was found.

All evidence found so far, including the weapon, fingerprints, autopsy and forensic evidence, eyewitnesses’ accounts and at least three survivors of the attacks has not helped police to trace the killers.

However, one of the members of three teams set up to investigate the crime, said a strong evidence had surfaced when an owner of a timber shop had told the police that the club found on the crime scene had been purchased from him.

The investigator said the police had prepared a sketch of the killer on his account. The identity of the shopkeeper was being kept secret, he added.