Javed Iqbal (serial killer)
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Javed Iqbal Mughal was a serial killer from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. He claimed he killed 100 boys during an 18 month period.
He had been arrested in June 1998 for procuring the services of two boy prostitutes. He went off on bail, and began murdering boys shortly afterwards.
Iqbal found boys on the street, charmed them into his confidence, and then drugged, raped, and strangled them. He then cut the body into pieces and put them in a vat filled with hydrochloric acid. Once all of the remains were liquified, he dumped them. He first used the sewer, until neighbors complained of an acrid stench. He then decided to use the Ravi River. The partially liquified remains of two boys, one of whom was named Ijaz, were the only ones found of Iqbal's victims. He kept the rest in an acid drum outside his house. He also kept clothing and shoes as trophies of his crimes. When he got to his fiftieth victim, he started taking pictures of them.
In a confession, he said "it cost me 120 rupees (about $2.00 United States dollars) to erase each victim."
He sent information about his crimes to the Islamabad-based Daily Jang, the most circulated Urdu newspaper in Pakistan. He surrendered on December 30, 1999.
No one had noticed the disappearance of the boys that Iqbal killed. Iqbal claimed that he could have killed 500 if he had wanted to. He reportedly said "I am Javed Iqbal, killer of 100 children ... I hate this world, I am not ashamed of my action and I am ready to die. I have no regrets. I killed 100 children."
Iqbal was sentenced to death by hanging, although the judge said he would have liked Iqbal to be strangled 100 times, cut into 100 pieces, and put him in acid.
Before this sentence could be carried out, he was found strangled with his bed sheets in his prison cell on October 7, 2001. One of his accomplices, Sajid, was also strangled. Pakistani authorities say that the men committed suicide. Another accomplice had previously fallen to his death from a CIA window.
Most people in Pakistan believe that the men were murdered. Autopsy results show that the two men were bleeding from the nose and mouth when they died. The results show that Sajid was beaten, and that several partially healed wounds inflicted by a blunt object were found on Iqbal's body. Prison guard Iftikar Husain reported that "I was asleep when the incident took place."
According to prison official Abdussattar Ajiz, Iftikar Husain didn't report the incident to his bosses immediately, and instead "untied the knots of the bed sheets, laid the bodies on the floor to create the impression that they were asleep. He did so to save his own skin." Liaquat Ali, Husain's relief, didn't check on the prisoners, who were found dead the next morning.
The case is still under investigation.
