Confessed killer's family members arrested in Pakistan

MISSING CHILDREN

By MUNIR AHMED

The Associated Press

LAHORE, Pakistan --- Hoping to bring a man who confessed to killing 100 children out of hiding, police in this Pakistani city arrested his ex-wife, daughter and son Saturday, the state-run news agency said.

On Thursday, police received a letter from a man who identified himself as Javed Iqbal. In the letter, Iqbal said he sexually assaulted the 100 children before killing them. He said he is a trained chemical engineer and that he used chemicals to dispose of the bodies.

In his letter, Iqbal gave instructions that led police to a large blue barrel in a home in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province, where they found the remains of two bodies.

The 40-year-old Iqbal apparently rented the home for the past eight months, according to a police report seen by the Associated Press.

Iqbal said in his letter most of the pictures were taken in that house, but some were taken in the hills outside the capital of Islamabad. He also led police to pictures and clothes of his alleged victims.

Police haven't found any more bodies yet. But parents or relatives of 57 of the children have recognized clothing or identified photographs of missing boys and girls, police spokesman Riaz Shafqat said. Police are trying to identify the other children.

"We are working around the clock to try to find this man and identify the other children," Shafqat said. In their report to military leaders, police said they suspect more than one person may have been involved.

Iqbal's family members were arrested in an attempt to lure him out of hiding, Pakistan's state-run news agency reported Saturday. Police earlier interrogated Iqbal's brother, father and brother-in-law.

"The family feels disgraced," the agency quoted police official Tariq Kamboh as saying.

Iqbal was last seen Oct. 18 at his father's home in Lahore, where he went to get his passport, his brother Saeed was quoted as saying in the police report. Saeed said Iqbal had thousands of dollars in his possession.

On Saturday, the faces of the dozens of children stared out at parents who arrived at a police station in eastern Lahore to see if their children's pictures or clothes were among the collection.

Sophia Satar doubled over crying, clutching a small white shirt.

"My God. It's my boy's," she kept repeating.

Her 12-year-old son, Imran, disappeared in October.

"He went out in the afternoon and never returned," Satar cried. "We called the police. We searched everywhere."

Hafeez Khan rummaged through the clothes on a table in the police station. He picked up a shirt and pants and said they belonged to his 7-year-old son, Amir.

"But I still hope, and I pray he is alive," he said.

Some of the children whose picture or clothes were identified by relatives were among the city's poorest, Shafqat said. Some were beggars, and others were among the army of children in Pakistan who work on the streets selling goods. Still others had left home and never returned, he said.

Pictures and stories about the children dominated the front pages of Urdu-language newspapers Saturday as police issued an appeal for assistance.

In the letter sent to police, Iqbal said he killed the children after being wrongly picked up by police and badly beaten while in custody. The letter said he went on a killing rampage in retaliation for the police abuse.

He threatened to kill himself by jumping into the Ravi River, which runs through Lahore. Police said they haven't found any evidence of a body in the river.

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