RAWALPINDI: A police team probing into three murder cases - two of the victims being women - is still unable to trace the killers. However, two of the bodies have been identified and handed over to their heirs.

Syed Ali, the SP Potohar division, who is leading the team, told Dawn that efforts were underway to identify the body of the 28-year-old woman whose body was found in Rahimabad with her hands and legs tied on Saturday.

“The body was stuffed in a sack and thrown into a nullah,” he said, adding nothing else was found in the sack which could help the police trace the killers.

The police had taken fingerprints of the victim but could not get her identified from Nadra.

Police say two bodies have been identified and handed over to heirs of victims

“She seemed to have been suffocated to death but the actual cause of her death could be known only after the forensic and chemical examiner’s report is received.”

The SP said the police had resolved the murder of a man and a woman whose bodies had been found in Wakeel Colony and Rahimabad during the last one week.

The body recovered from Wakeel Colony has been identified as Sheraz Bhatti, 30, a resident of Mughalabad. The police contacted his parents but they refused to accept the body saying they had already disowned him.

The SP said Bhatti had a criminal record and was involved in different cases, including a robbery and an illegal weapon possession case. However, the cause of his death is yet to be ascertained. The body of a 22-year-old woman found on Saturday in a gunny bag from the limits of the Airport police has been identified as Samina Bibi. She had been missing from her home since October 25.

The woman used to sell pencils and bags on the streets with her mother and went missing after leaving her house on Wednesday. Three days later, she was found dead with no external marks of torture on the body. The cause of her death could not be ascertained as her body was partially decomposed.

The SP said the police were working on different lines and would trace the killers of both the women.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2017