Within the jurisdiction of Peshawar’s Budh Bher police station, unidentified armed individuals opened fire on a police team, resulting in the death of a detained suspect accused of desecrating graves and allegedly abusing the exhumed bodies of young children.
Police stated that they were taking the arrested suspect, Salman, son of Afghan, to the Sheikhan graveyard for crime scene identification when six unidentified armed men riding three motorcycles suddenly ambushed the police party. The gunfire damaged an official vehicle and an officer’s bulletproof vest, though the officer narrowly escaped unhurt.
According to authorities, the detained suspect Salman sustained critical injuries during the exchange of fire and succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital, while the attackers managed to flee the scene. Police subsequently launched a search operation in the area to track down the fleeing assailants.
The suspect had been apprehended the previous day during an attempt to desecrate a grave at the Sheikhan graveyard, after being caught by local residents and handed over to the police. During interrogation, the suspect had allegedly confessed to desecrating 10 graves, and a case under various legal provisions had been registered against him.
Background Details on the Accused The 19-year-old suspect, a resident of Afghanistan currently living in Bara Qadeem, lived near the graveyard and admitted to carrying out these heinous acts to satisfy his perverse desires over the past three to four months. Police and senior officials, including SP Saddar Fida Hussain and DSP Saeed Rehman, had previously disclosed in a press conference that the suspect was caught red-handed by a graveyard watchman while exhuming a body.
Investigators revealed that the suspect—who is a Hafiz-e-Quran and has passed his 12th-grade education—was mentally stable and did not use drugs, but fell into bad company. He confessed to previously digging up graves four times, leaving young boys’ bodies behind while taking young girls’ bodies to secluded wooded areas to clean them, dress them, and commit necrophilia. He had abused four deceased girls and was caught during his fifth attempt.
