Suspected serial killer arrested
* Police say accused psychopathic drug addict
* Suspect wanted ‘revenge from society’ for uncle’s murder
Staff Report
July 19, 2005
LAHORE: People living in the Walled City have
with Lahore Police’s cooperation caught the alleged killer of 14
homeless people early Tuesday morning from Azam Cloth Market.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) (Operation)
Aamir Zulfiqar told reporters that 24-year-old Aamir was a
psychopathic drug addict who wanted to take revenge from society.
The SSP said Aamir had a history of violence and his family members
including a brother and five sisters confirmed his psychopathic
behaviour.
He said Aamir’s family abandoned him when he was
a child, after which he (Aamir) lived with his maternal uncle Dr
Shahid. Unidentified people murdered his uncle and a friend, Punjab
Police Inspector Khwaja Rizwan, on September 25, 2003, the SSP
added.
Aamir said he was taking revenge of his uncle’s
murder from society because, according to him (Aamir), his family
got scattered, the SSP said, adding that Aamir admitted being behind
16 incidents in which 14 people were killed while two were seriously
injured.
The SSP said Aamir’s father, Qayyum, was blind
and that he (Aamir) was thrown out of school for his violent
behaviour. The SSP also said Aamir’s brother and sisters threw him
out of the house because he would beat them up.
The SSP said that when Aamir was asked why he
attacked his victims with stones, he said, “When there are weapons
available on the road, why spend money?”
The SSP also said investigators found stones
weighing 10 kilogrammes to 35 kilogrammes from every crime spot. He
said Aamir acted alone and psychiatrists were helping police sketch
Aamir’s state of mind.
Superintendent of Police (SP) (City Division) Dr
Usman Anwar said Aamir used to wash vehicles in Liberty Market. He
said the accused walked towards United Christian Hospital (UCH) at
about 11:00pm on Monday (July 18) and saw a person sleeping on the
footpath. Aamir tried lifting a large stone, but it was chained, so
he left the man alone, the SP said, adding that he (Aamir) walked to
Kalma Chowk where he had dinner at a roadside hotel.
After eating, Aamir walked towards Nasserabad
where he saw another person sleeping on the footpath, the SP said,
adding that Aamir picked up a large stone and killed the man at
about 2:30am. Later, Aamir boarded a wagon and got to the Rang Mahal
area, he added.
Meanwhile, Aamir saw another man, Ishtiaq,
sleeping on the footpath and picked up a stone and hit the sleeping
man with it, the SP said. While all this was going on, private
security guard Abdul Wakeel Khan saw Aamir, started screaming for
help and tried to catch him, but Aamir managed to escape, the SP
added.
Wakeel said, “I was on routine patrol when I saw
a man pick up a stone and hit a sleeping man on the head. I
immediately caught the culprit from his arm and shouted ‘killer,
killer’, but the culprit managed to escape my grip and fled. I
screamed again and started chasing him when plainclothes policemen
joined me.”
Ahsan Khan, who lived close by, came out of his
house and grabbed Aamir, the SP said.
Ahsan said, “I heard the guard screaming and
immediately came out of my house with my brother. I saw a man was
running at me with the guard and other people chasing and screaming
‘he is a killer, catch him’. I caught the culprit and the guard and
others came and helped me.”
Policemen patrolling the area also got to the
spot and immediately informed senior police officials of the catch.
Ishtiaq was taken to hospital in serious condition. The SSP and SP
immediately got to the area and took Aamir to an unknown location
for investigation. The SP said Aamir appeared mentally deranged and
killed for the sake of revenge. The accused took out everything that
could identify his victims to make investigations more difficult,
the SP added.
Aamir lived a very simple life and before killing
the unidentified person in Nasserabad he earned Rs 130 by washing
cars at Liberty Market and spent Rs 15 on dinner, the SP said. Aamir
was a drug addict and was arrested a year ago by Gujjarpura Police,
the SP said, adding that Aamir used to live in a rented room in the
Shadbagh area.
Pakistan police
arrest suspected serial killer
July 19, 2005
Police have arrested a
man accused of killing 14 homeless people in the past three weeks by
bludgeoning them to death with bricks.
The killings since
June 28 in Lahore spread fear and panic among the 200,000 homeless
people in Pakistan’s second-largest city.
A senior police
officer told Reuters that the suspect, who he identified only as
Aamir, was arrested on Monday night and had confessed to the
killings.
He said the
24-year-old man appeared mentally deranged.
The victims of the
killing spree were all homeless men, including labourers, beggars
and drug addicts, and were bludgeoned to death with bricks while
sleeping.
“We caught him last
night while he was trying to escape after hitting a homeless man,
who was sleeping, with a brick,” Superintendent of Police Dr Usman
Anwar said of the suspect.
“He has a history of
violence and is the only brother of five sisters who claim he is
also frequently violent with them and is a psychopath,” Anwar said.
Last year, 15 homeless
people were killed in Lahore by being bludgeoned with bricks before
police arrested three men.
One suspect confessed
to killing 11 people and was sentenced to death. The other two were
released due to lack of evidence.
Usman said Aamir had
been asked why he used bricks to kill his victims and had replied:
“When such free weapons are available on the road, why spend money?”
Usman said the man Aamir had attacked when he was caught survived.
Pakistan’s worst
modern-day serial killer was Javed Iqbal, who in 1999 confessed to
murdering 100 children and dissolving their remains in acid to
avenge having been beaten by police.
Police won’t get shrink to evaluate ‘serial killer’
* Psychiatrists say analysis important to ascertain motive
* Can help in future investigations
By Shahnawaz Khan
Thursday, July 21, 2005
LAHORE: City police have refused to get a psychologist to evaluate
suspected serial killer Amir Qayyum, even though senior police
officers have described him as a psychopath.
SSP (Operations) Aamir Zulfiqar said that the suspect, believed to
have killed 14 homeless men in Lahore since June 20, showed no
symptoms of madness and so did not need a psychological evaluation,
though he later contradicted himself by calling Qayyum a “psycho”.
SSP (Investigations) Chaudhry Shafqat Ahmad said that a
psychoanalysis might work out in favour of the suspect as he could
then plead insanity in his trial.
According to psychiatrists, the psychological assessment of
suspected serial killers is important to finding the roots of such
crimes and can be helpful in investigating and curbing such murders
in future.
“A psychological assessment of this serial killer is very important
to finding the reasons for his killings,” said Prof Dr Haroon
Rasheed, head of the psychiatric department of Fatima Jinnah Medical
College.
“Psychoanalysis of serial killers can help police in future
investigations of serial murders,” said Dr Saima Niaz, FJMC
assistant professor and a member of the World Psychiatrists
Association (WPA). “It is also important to assess whether he has
done it or whether the police have forced him to confess,” she said.
SSP Zulfiqar said Qayyum was a “cold blooded killer” who had no
guilt about his crimes. “He would play cricket after murdering a
person. He confessed to all the killings. We found his clothes
stained with blood and some other evidence from his house that we
have sent for DNA tests,” he said.
Police investigators say Qayyum bashed his victims’ heads in with
large stones weighing up to 35 kilograms. Asked how a man could lift
a 35 kilogram stone, SSP Zulfiqar said: “He is a psycho and he could
do it in a fit of rage.”
Police also claimed that Qayyum had stated the motive for his
murders to be “revenge from society” for the murder of his maternal
uncle Dr Shahid on September 25, 2003. Asked why he thought Qayyum
waited almost two years to get his revenge, SSP Zulfiqar said
“because he is a psycho and can do anything”.
The police arrested a suspect for the murder of Dr Shahid on
February 28, 2004, but he died in custody in suspicious
circumstances. The police claimed Hafiz Abid shot himself in a
police van by taking a gun from a constable who was asleep, even
though the suspect’s hands were cuffed behind his back at the time.
His death was officially put down as suicide.
An anti-terrorism court in the Pakistani city
of Lahore has sentenced to death an alleged serial killer who has
been convicted of murder.
Aamir Qayum is also charged with bludgeoning to
death 12 other people - verdicts are expected next week.
The victims, mostly labourers who slept rough on
the streets, were hit with rocks or bricks as they slept. Qayum, 25,
was arrested in July last year.
Media called the attacker the "brick killer"
because of the manner of death.
The murders, which took place at almost regular
intervals in 2005, shocked Lahore.
Police say Aamir Qayum is "a violence-prone
person" who killed to avenge his uncle's murder nearly three years
ago.
The case of a 14th suspected murder was not
considered by the court, because officials say the body is "untraceable".
