Remand of Chunian murders accused extended

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday extended physical remand of alleged serial killer Suhail Shehzad accused of raping and murdering four minor boys in Kasur’s Chunian tehsil.

Shehzad had been remanded into police custody on October 2 and on Wednesday a 14-day extension in his remand was given by the court. Judge Abdul Qayyum Khan who was presiding over the hearing asked the suspect if he had been beat up in custody. No one beat me up, the suspect replied, adding I request the same treatment this time as well. When asked by the judge whether Shehzad’s medical exam had been carried out, the investigation officer replied in the affirmative saying that it had been taken the very day it was ordered. During the last hearing when Shehzad had been produced before the anti-terrorism court for the first time the investigation officer had explained that the suspect had been brought to court in pursuance of an FIR registered against the sexual assault and murder of one of the four boys. The cases registered for the other three boys were being probed by a joint investigation team, he had explained.

The officer said that the suspect’s DNA had matched in two more cases and that he will soon be brought before the court in pursuance of those cases as well. During the course of the hearing, Deputy Prosecutor General Abdul Rauf Wattoo presented arguments to the court and a report by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency was also submitted with findings in the investigation thus far.