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Twice-Married Father of Two Left Confessional Notes Javed Iqbal: Dissolved Bodies of Poor Runaways in Acid |
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By Jack Nichols
Lahore, Pakistan—In Urdu letters described by Pakistan's press as "hauntingly bizarre"
a rich Pakistani twice-married father of two, Javed Iqbal, has confessed to the rapes and
grisly killings of 100 young boys aged 12-15.
The incident has rocked the nation's religiously conservative Muslim society to its foundations, with gruesome details filtering daily into the media. In spite of notes left by the killer saying he intended to commit suicide, the regional head of police believes Iqbal is still alive. "If I catch him personally," promised a local Inspector, "I will commit against him what the law would call 'a sin.' "
"I have killed 100 children, all boys, placed their bodies in acid filled drums." As if to boast about the ease with which he accomplished his crimes, he wrote: "In terms of expense, including the acid, it coast me 120 rupees ($2.40) to erase each victim." The killer's notes carefully identified each of his victims, often runaway boys who inhabited a Lahore neighborhood that has been a long-time urban refuge for Pakistani children who adopt a variety of survival techniques, including pick-pocketing and prostitution. Taking a cheap three room flat in the area, Iqbal enticed the neighborhood's boys with promises of food, money, and good times. The extreme grief shown by the parents of many boys who'd been missing for several months but were later found to be among the dead, spilled into Pakistani media this week. In one note left by the killer, he promised to commit suicide on November 25. "I am on my way to drown myself in the River Ravi," he wrote, "I have planned to tie a heavy rock to myself so that I can die quickly." Police who dragged the shallow waterway, however, have found no body. Police records show that Iqbal had been arrested for "sodomy" with youngsters as early as 1985. He'd avoided jail in early prosecutions either through bribes or failures to appear in court. In later instances when he'd been caught, his accusers did not report him to the authorities but allowed him to humble himself by confessing his crime to locals. Alerted to Iqbal's crimes by his confessions, police who entered his three-room apartment found that it contained five sacks with the clothes of his 100 victims as well as 85 pairs of shoes. In the back room were chemical barrels. |
