Javed Iqbal (serial killer)

Infobox Serial Killer
name=Javed Iqbal Mughal


caption= Police Custody Photo
birthname=
alias=
birth=1956 ?
location=Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan?
death= death date and age|2001|10|8|1956|10|8|df=y
cause= Suicide
victims=100
country=Pakistan
states=
beginyear=unknown
endyear=unknown
apprehended=Dec, 1998
penalty=Death

Javed Iqbal (1956? in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan? - October 8, 2001 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) was a Pakistani serial killer who was found guilty of the sexual abuse and murder of 100 children.

Early life

Javed Iqbal was the sixth child (fourth son) of Mohammad Ali Mughal, a well-off trader. He matriculated at Islamia High School. He started his own business in 1978 when he was an intermediate student at the Islamia College, Railway Road. His father bought two villas in Shadbagh. Iqbal set up a steel recasting business in one of the houses and lived there for years along with boys.

Murders, arrest, and trial

In December 1999, Iqbal sent a letter to police and a local Lahore newspaper confessing to the murders of 100 boys, all aged between six and 16. In the letter, he claimed to have strangled and dismembered the victims - mostly runaways and orphans living on the streets of Lahore - and disposed of their bodies using vats of hydrochloric acid. He then dumped the remains in a local river. In his house, police and reporters found bloodstains on the walls and floor with the chain on which Iqbal claimed to have strangled his victims, photographs of many of his victims in plastic bags. These items were neatly labeled with handwritten pamphlets. Two vats of acids with partially dissolved human remains were also left in the open for police to find, with a note claiming "the bodies in the house have deliberately not been disposed of so that authorities will find them." [ [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/javed_iqbal/4.html All about Javed Iqbal, by Seamus McGraw ] ]

Iqbal confessed in his letter that he planned to drown himself in the Ravi River following his crimes but after unsuccessfully dragging the river with nets, police launched what was, at that time, the largest manhunt Pakistan had ever witnessed. Four accomplices, teenage boys who had shared Iqbal's three-bedroom flat, were arrested in Sohawa. Within days, one of them died in police custody, apparently by jumping from a window.

It was a month before Iqbal turned himself in at the offices of the Urdu-language newspaper "Daily Jang" on the 30th December, 1999. He was subsequently arrested. He stated that he had surrendered to the newspaper because he feared for his life and was concerned that the police would kill him. [ [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/javed_iqbal/1.html All about Javed Iqbal, by Seamus McGraw ] ]

Although his diary contained detailed descriptions of the murders, and despite the handwriting on the placards in his house matching Iqbal's, he claimed in court that he was innocent and that the entire affair was an elaborate hoax to draw attention to the plight of runaway children from poor families. He claimed that his statements to police were made under duress. Over a hundred witnesses testified against Iqbal and he and his accomplices were found guilty.

The judge sentenced Iqbal to die by strangulation in the same public square he had frequented when searching for victims, and that his body should be cut up into 100 pieces and dissolved in acid under the Shariah legal concept of Qisas ("an eye for an eye").

* Javed Iqbal (42 years old) was sentenced to death by public strangulation.
* Sajid Ahmad (17 years old) was also sentenced to death for his participation in the murders.
* Mamad Nadeem (15 years old) was found guilty of the murders of 13 of the victims and was sentenced to 182 years in prison (14 years for each murder).
* Mamad Sabir (13 years old) was sentenced to 63 years in prison.

References

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/585628.stm "Pakistan Serial Killer under Investigation"]

External links

* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/javed_iqbal/1.html Crime Library information on Iqbal]
* [http://www.dawn.com/2001/10/10/local41.htm Dawn.com newspaper report of the trial.]
* [http://www.dawn.com/2001/10/10/local41.htm Dawn.com Javed Iqbal, accomplice found dead in jail]
* [http://www.dawn.com/2001/10/11/local43.htm Dawn.com biography.]