LAHORE: Police made no headway in arresting the prime suspect involved in murdering at least eight underage girls, 10 days after his latest victim Zainab went missing on January 4.

The 36-hour deadline issued by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to police for arresting the suspects also lapsed without any progress.

On Sunday, Inspector-General of Police Arif Nawaz personally visited Kasur and held a meeting with members of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
The meeting was attended, among others, by JIT head RPO Multan Muhammad Idrees, RPO Sheikhupura Zulfiqar Hameed, Director-General Punjab Forensic Science Agency Dr Muhammad Ashraf Tahir, SSP IC3 Akbar Nasir, DIG Investigation Lahore Chaudhry Sultan, DIG Investigation Waqas Nazeer, AIG Legal Abdul Rub, DPO Kasur Zahid Nawaz Marwat, SSP Special Branch Irfanullah Khan.

Members of the JIT briefed IGP about efforts made by police in this regard. JIT head Muhammad Idrees told the IG Punjab that Zainab murder would be solved as soon as CCTV footage and images of alleged person were matched and all persons of this area were DNA tested.

IGP ordered JIT to hasten efforts to arrest the suspect.

JIT separately interviewed family members of previous victims.

It also issued a fresh sketch of the suspect after obtaining a new picture from CCTV camera. The JIT could not obtain any information about the suspect through the picture from NADRA record. They also decided to conduct DNA tests of all people matching the suspect’s age and living in a two-kilometer radius of Zainab’s house.

Meanwhile, Zainab’s father Muhammad Ameen also lashed out against police for their failure to arrest his daughter’s killer. He said that the authorities concerned were assuring him that he would get quick justice but police had so far made no progress. He also called for releasing people arrested by police during protests. He said that family members of arrested protestors were approaching him for help. JIT had so far investigated 247 suspects, collected and analysed CCTV footage and call data record of the area where Zainab went missing.

After interrogating suspects and data analysis, 10 suspects had been short-listed. More persons were weaned out, leaving just three suspects. But, DNA and other evidence showed that the prime suspect was still at large.

The prime suspect, who is yet to be unidentified, is now thought to be a serial killer who is involved in murders of at least eight girls aged between five and seven. At least 13 cases of rape and murder were reported in Kasur since last year.

On Tuesday (January 9), the issue was again highlighted when people staged a protest after Zainab’s body was recovered.