Pakistani serial killer surrenders

Pakistani serial killer surrenders
AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD, DECEMBER 31: A Pakistani serial killer who confessed to have sodomised and killed 100 children dramatically surrendered in a newspaper office late on Thursday after the police failed to nab him despite launching a month-long countrywide hunt for him.

Javed Iqbal, believed to be in his late 30s, showed up at the Lahore office of Jung and The News dailies and after giving an interview to them, asked to be handed over to the authorities even as the police was holding a press conference announcing the arrest of two of his accomplices and claiming that very soon they would nab him.

The surrender came as another embarrassment for the police which was under immense pressure from the public after the macabre killings came to light last month through Iqbal's hand-written confessions saying he had killed 100 children and then destroyed their bodies in acid-filled drums.

``I have no regrets,'' Iqbal told The News before his arrest, ``I killed 100 children, for I was deniedjustice.''

He accused the police of implicating him in a false sodomy case earlier and severely beating him which made him ``think of taking revenge on this world''. I was so badly beaten that my head was crushed, my backbone broken and I was left crippled,'' he said. ``I hate this world.''

Iqbal eluded police for nearly a month after they found the remains of two children in a barrel of acid and a note saying he had killed 100 children in total.

He decided to kill 100 children after taking a pledge to do so at the tomb of a famous saint in Lahore.``I prayed at Data Darbar that I would kill 100 children. In this way I would take revenge on the world I hated.''

Asked why he killed exactly 100 children, Iqbal, who according to the newspaper became very emotional and hysterical during the interview, said, ``I could have killed 500 children, this was not a problem, money was not a problem, but the pledge I had taken was 100 children and I never wanted to violate this.''