Pakistan Minister a victim of Islamist 'serial killer'
PAKISTAN: Pakistani investigators are probing whether a
"serial killer" cleric who assassinated a female minister this week -
having previously confessed to four other murders - had links to
Islamist groups.
In a case that shocked the Islamic republic, extremist Mohammad
Sarwar shot Punjab province social welfare minister Zilla Huma Usman in
the head at a public meeting in central Gujranwala city on Tuesday.
Police have said that Sarwar objected to the involvement of women in
politics and disapproved of the clothes worn by Usman, a supporter of
the moderate and pro-US President Pervez Musharraf.
"I killed her out of conviction that she was leading an un-Islamic
life and spreading an evil influence on other women," he told
interrogators, according to a police source.
Police say that in 2003 Sarwar had escaped justice despite publicly
admitting that he had killed four prostitutes and injured another four
as they waited by roadsides for clients.
"He is a serial killer," said Saud Aziz, the police chief of
Gujranwala at the time of the earlier shootings.
Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat hit out at the Pakistani justice
system, saying "fanatic" Sarwar was still on the streets mainly due to
"defective police investigation and poor quality of the prosecution."
"We are investigating and there is a possibility that he may have
support from some religious group," he said, without elaborating or
naming the organisation.
Pakistan has dozens of Islamic militant outfits, most of which have
been banned by Musharraf.
The prostitute murders - three in conservative Gujranwala and one in
the eastern city of Lahore between September 2002 and January 2003 -
puzzled police and caused a public outcry.
Former police inspector Mohammad Naveed finally arrested Sarwar in
early 2003 on the basis of information from local religious leaders and
witness reports that a cleric was spotted near the scene of the
killings.
He said Sarwar's usual method of attack was to fire two or three
bullets just above the crotch of his victims. One woman who survived was
paralysed.
"In no time after his arrest (in 2003) he confessed to the murders
and provided all the details," Naveed said. "He was produced before the
media and he made a confessional statement."
Yet the case collapsed during the trial. Police said the victims'
families took compensation money raised by religious leaders instead of
testifying because of the shame of their daughters' "immoral"
profession.
His lawyer, Liaqat Sindhu, said he "knew that Sarwar was guilty of
the killings" but that he was acquitted because there was no firm
evidence and the case was mishandled. Psychiatric tests on Sarwar in
2003 showed that he was "not deranged", said Saud Aziz, who is now
police chief of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
"He said he killed the girls after he got divine revelations," he
said.
Islamabad, Thursday, afp. |