LAHORE, May 16: Death toll in the serial killing rose to 10 when an injured man died on Thursday.

The serial killer(s) had lately struck three times on Wednesday after about a week’s gap as a suspect killer was caught by the police.

At least eight people had been killed in a similar fashion before city police chief last week announced the arrest of the ‘killer’ in a press conference. However, the latest strikes revealed the same old police trick of befooling people with fake arrests and demanded of them to put in real effort to solve the mystery.

The senior police command has nothing to say in their defence except for making lame excuses and requests for anonymity.

The killer struck thrice in areas stretched over some five kilometres along Multan Road in Hanjarwal. One of the victims, Muhammad Asghar, 50, a tea-stall owner, was found dead while the two others were found unconscious. They all had been hit in their heads as was done in the previous eight killings.

Both the injured men were admitted to the Jinnah Hospital, of whom, one Sadiq alias Baggo, 45, a beggar, died on Thursday. The condition of third injured man, Zulfiqar Ali, 30, a security guard, was still critical.

The Hanjarwal area is new to the killer as all the earlier hits were made in localities surroundings the city main bus terminal — Badami Bagh, Lorry Adda, Shafiqabad, Ravi Road and Shahdara.

All the victims, expect for one who was stabbed besides being tortured, had been hit by a wooden object that was found almost in every incident.

All victims belonged to the poor class and were sleeping in open places.