LAHORE – Malik Abdul Hameed, former DIG Police and father of Supreme Court judge Justice Javed Iqbal, along with his spouse was found strangled to death at their Cavalry Ground residence in Cantonment police area late on Tuesday night.
Police sources claimed that the possibility of target killing could not be ruled out.
Sources further said the couple, in their early 80s, was tortured and strangled to death in their house located in the posh and fortified locality. The policemen deployed outside their residence 164-Cavalary Ground were absent from the duty. The motives behind the murder are yet to be ascertained, but nothing from the luggage was missing, raising suspicions, a top police source said. Both Malik Abdul Hameed, 85, and his wife Amna Hameed, 80, were lying dead on the floor in the courtyard of the lower portion when the police reached there.
A woman residing on the upper portion of their house on rent found the couple dead and informed the police about the gruesome murder incident.
“Two female neighbourers phoned the police, which reached the spot and detained the both for preliminary investigation,” insiders said. They further said as the women were the first eyewitnesses of the incident, they would be interrogated regarding the incident.
Investigators were on the scene, collecting evidences to determine how the killers brutally murdered Malik and his wife.
Apparently, the killers suffocated former DIG Special Branch Quetta Abdul Hameed and his wife to death by putting pillows on their faces. “We are trying to find out motives behind the killings. Nothing is clear at this moment,” the source said.
Justice Javed Iqbal, a close associate of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who had refused to take oath under PCO, was in Islamabad while his parents were staying alone at their Lahore residence. The Punjab Bar Council announced strike for Wednesday (today) and lawyers will not appear in the courts to protest the killings.
Sources said Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) SP Umar Virk had got a tip-off that a gang would break into the locality some days back on which the CIA, in collaboration with the Lahore Police teams, had started surveillance of the area and deployed personnel at several locations.
Days after the newly-appointed IG Punjab Javed Iqbal assumed charge of his new office and spelt out his priorities to bring down the alarming crime rate, dacoits have killed the parents of a senior Supreme Court judge Justice Javed Iqbal.
The police have arrested the street guard and are investigating.
The news got many grave ramifications for the judges and their families after this incident took place.
It is worth mentioning here that the horrible incident has come at such a critical situation when the SC judges are being considered the only ray of hope and the only working institution for the deprived people across the country.
The dacoity-cum-murder incidents have swelled to an alarming level in Lahore as the dacoits killed 55 people on offering resistance last year.
Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif took strong notice of the incident and directed IGP Javed Iqbal to nab the killers.
The Chief Minister of Punjab, the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, the Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner, the DCO Lahore and provincial law minister were also on the crime scene till the filing of this report.
The police denied the media access to the crime scene and cordoned off the entire locality.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik constituted a Joint Investigation Team comprising ISI, FIA, IB and Punjab Police to probe into the ghastly murder incident.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, PML-Q President Ch Shujaat Hussain, PTI Chairman Imran Khan and JamaÂ’at-i-Islami Ameer Syed Munawar Hassan and former Ameer JI Qazi Hussain Ahmed strongly condemned the killing of the parents of Justice Javed Iqbal.
Premier Gilani directed the Joint Investigation Team to investigate the sad incident and submit a report at the earliest. The Prime Minister conveyed his heartiest condolences and sincere sympathies to the members of the bereaved family.
President Zardari also strongly condemned the tragic happening and ordered immediate inquiry into the incident. He expressed his deep sense of shock and grief over the tragic deaths and prayed to Allah Almighty to rest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved family.