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Wednesday, 10 October, 2001, 06:46 GMT 07:46 UK
Pakistan probes serial killer's death
![]() The killings shocked Pakistani society
An inquiry has been launched into the death of convicted Pakistani serial killer Javed Iqbal who is reported to have committed suicide in prison.
However, the circumstances in which he came to obtain poison have not been made clear. Six officials of the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Punjab province, where the two prisoners died, have also been suspended from service. Forty-one-year old Iqbal was sentenced to death in March last year for killing 100 teenage boys. He had surrendered to the authorities after confessing to the murders in a letter written to a newspaper. The case was believed to be the worst of its kind in Pakistan's history. Lawyer's doubts Iqbal's lawyer, Faisal Najib Chaudhry, told the BBC that he was questioning the official version of his death.
"His letter is now on record at the federal sharia [Islamic law] court where Mr Iqbal's appeal against his conviction was pending," said Mr Chaudhry. He said he was still waiting for the post-mortem report on Iqbal. A potential witness in the case died in December 1999 after being taken in for questioning by the police. They said at the time that he had jumped out of a window. Death sentence Iqbal was in prison awaiting execution and was appealing against his sentence. At his trial, the judge caused controversy by ordering him to be strangled and then cut into pieces, which he said was a requirement of Islamic law. The government moved to stem criticism of the ruling by saying it would not be implemented. Pakistan's leading Islamic affairs advisory body also declared the sentence un-Islamic. |
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