FAISALABAD, Jan 25: Call it a superstition or whatever, an infant and her nine-year-old cousin have been led to the altar of personal gain by none other than their relative who claimed that he had taken the extreme step of killing the two girls on the advice of a “spiritual healer”.

The police have arrested Irshad Ahmad who confessed to killing Laraib and her cousin, Ayesha, in a span of 15 days. The police said he had slain the cousins on the directions of an aamil (spiritual healer) who diagnosed that his (Irshad’s) wife was under the charm of an evil influence and could bear a child only after performing ablutions on the graves of recently-buried children. He wanted his wife to be ridden of what his aamil called ghost.

Information gleaned by Dawn revealed that Irshad Ahmad alias Arshad tied in the nuptial wedlock in Multan about one and-a-half years ago. He had a daughter who died after 15 days of birth. Thereafter, he was led to believe that her wife was under the spell of a mischievous spirit and she needed a spiritual treatment as no doctor could liberate her from the spirit.

Irshad and his wife reportedly contacted a man in Multan who was introduced to them as a past master in black magic. He asked the ‘pregnant’ woman to perform ablutions on the graves of children if she wanted herself to be a mother again.

Irshad killed the two girls in Gardana area in Thikriwala police station precinct in September last year.

Laraib, 4, daughter of a poor farmer of Chak 37 (Gardana) went missing from outside her house and the family recovered her body after few hours from fields. Two weeks later, Laraib’s cousin Ayesha, 9, met the same fate and her body was recovered from fields. The police found marks of rope on the girl’s neck and believed that she was strangled.

The two blind murders spread panic in the area and stirred the police into action who registered separate cases against unidentified killers.

After failing to find any clue to the killers, the police took into custody Najma, another relative of Irshad, and her husband Mushtaq when sniffer dogs led them to their house. Both were released when the aggrieved parties claimed that Mushtaq and his wife had nothing to do with these murders.

Irshad also claimed during interrogation that it was Najma who abetted her to do the crime as she wanted to give birth to a child. He claimed that she had illicit relations with him and often talked about children as even 10 years after marriage she was issueless.

“First I killed Laraib and Najma went to her grave for performing ablutions. Then I killed Ayesha and she again took a bath. I killed the girls as she (Najma) threatened me to reveal about our illicit relations,” Irshad said.

Meanwhile, the police said Najma was not medically fit to give birth to a child as they had got her checked from doctors.

“I intentionally threw the bodies of both girls in the nearby fields fearing that if I took those away from the village they might be eaten up by animals”.

He remained tight-lipped about his wife’s role in the incident, insisting that Najma, and not his wife, wanted to have a child. He, however, admitted that he acted upon the advice of the aamil whose identity he would not disclose.

The culprit said he was spending sleepless nights after killing the two relatives. “I am nervous and afraid of my fate on the day of reckoning.”

The police sounded sure that Irshad had concocted a story of his illicit relations with Najma. “We have investigated the woman and found her innocent”.

The shattered mother of Laraib said she was dead sure from the day one that Irshad was the killer of her daughter.

Ayesha was an adopted daughter of Muhammad Mustafa. Her mother told Dawn that Irshad’s in-laws had told them many times that their daughter was a victim of some evil spirits.

She said Irshad returned from Multan a day before the killing of Laraib and one of family members, Intizar saw him with the deceased. The killer threatened Intizar with dire consequences for letting the cat out of the bag.”

Najma told Dawn that Irshad was dragging her into the case only to pressure the family not to pursue a case against him. She said Laraib was the daughter of my real sister and she could never think of sacrificing her niece.

Thikriwala police station SHO Waris Awan said the investigation officers believed that some aamil might be behind the murder of the two girls as several incidents of this nature had taken place in the past. He said the police would catch the aamil very soon.