I’ve been reading, listening, watching, and researching true crime for a long time. But nothing quite prepared me for the horrors inflicted by Javed Iqbal.
Javed Iqbal was born on October 8th, 1956 in the city of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. He was the 6th of 8 children, born to a very wealthy, very powerful stock market trader father. This wealth and power would come back to haunt Pakistan in the worst way imaginable.
In 1978, still an intermediate student at the Government Islamia College, Railway Road, Iqbal started a steel recasting business. He lived and worked from a villa in Shadbagh, bought for him by his father.
It was during this time that many criminal complaints came to light about Iqbal. Many of these complaints were for sexual assault – specifically, the sexual assault of young boys and teenage boys. Iqbal never saw a day in court. His father would swoop in with his power, his money, and his influence in order to keep his son out of prison.
When his father passed away in 1993, Iqbal was left with an extremely generous inheritance – to the tune of more than 3 million rupees. This allowed him to pursue other ventures. All of these ventures would lead to him finding new targets.
Iqbal used his inheritance willy nilly, opening new businesses for the purpose of luring boys – usually between the ages of 6 and 16 – to him. His ventures include, but are not limited to – a video store, an “aquarium, a gym, a general store, and even a school, but none of these entrepreneurial endeavours lasted for very long because parents were afraid to let their children go to places run by Iqbal.”
When these businesses failed, Iqbal found other ways to target the boys. He often used pen-pal programs to write to the boys. He would groom them to his liking, and lure them to meet-ups with promises of gifts, food, and money.
In September, 1998, Iqbal was hospitalized for 22 days. He and an employee of his were severely beaten. While hospitalized, the employee’s family put forward a complaint of sexual assault against Iqbal – his employee was an underaged boy. A boy Iqbal had taken advantage of repeatedly.
Upon release from the hospital, Iqbal was arrested. However, his father wasn’t around to help him out this time. His family helped some – they used what was left of his inheritance and wealth to pay for the medical expenses and for bail. His villa and vehicles had to be sold to cover costs. Iqbal was left destitute, his only option – renting a small house in the slums of Lahore.
“Iqbal later said that when he was arrested and questioned by police, he was beaten and brutalized, and he claimed the abuse he suffered at the hands of law enforcement motivated him to kill.” Iqbal vowed his revenge against law enforcement – he would kill 100 boys, targeting the young and the vulnerable, mostly runaways and orphans.
He used the same tactics he used before – luring boys to his home with the promise of gifts and food. These boys would never be heard from again. Iqbal would then drug the boys, rape them, choke them with a chain, dismember them, and put them in vats of acid, which he would then proceed to pour down the sewer next to his home. He did keep some things, though. He kept trophies.
In December 1999, Iqbal sent an anonymous letter to police and the chief of news editing of a large Lahore newspaper, the Daily Jang, confessing to 100 murders. He even gave them an address to go to – the address to his house next to the sewer.
Police and press alike rushed there. Upon arrival, they found bloodstains on the walls and the floor. They also found the chain, clothes, shoes, and many disturbing photographs of the victims. Law enforcement described the scene as a “house of horrors”.
Police also dredged the Ravi River. Iqbal claimed he’d drown himself. Finding no evidence of such an action taking place, policed launched what was, at the time, the largest manhunt Pakistan had ever seen.
Still at the house of absolute horrors, police also found 3 teenage boys holed up in one of the bedrooms. It was quickly determined that these boys – referred to in the press by their last names – were accomplices to Iqbal’s nefarious activities.
For a month, Iqbal evaded capture. Then, he turned himself in at the offices of the Daily Jang. He was arrested on December 31st, 1999. He stated that he surrendered himself to the newspaper, rather than the police, because he feared law enforcement would kill him on sight.
In February, 2000, the trial for the three accomplices took place. Sajid (17), was convicted of 98 counts of murder, and sentenced to death plus 686 years in prison. Nadeem (15) was sentenced to 186 years in prison for 13 counts of murder. Sabir (13) was sentenced to 42 years in prison. Not long after, their ringleader stood trial for the murder of 100 boys and teenagers.
On March 9th, 2000, the trial against Javed Iqbal began. Iqbal had many stories to tell about what happened, pleading not guilty the whole way. At one point, he claimed that he’d only confessed because he wanted to draw attention to the problem of runaway children in Lahore. In another instance, he claimed that no boys had actually died, and, therefore, no crime had actually been committed. However, it was his very own confession letter that was his true undoing: “I am not ashamed of my actions and I am ready to die. I have no regrets.”
It was very easy for Judge Allah Bukhsh Ranjha to find him guilty of murder.
On March 15th, 2000, Javed Iqbal faced his sentencing. The Judge decided upon the most severe punishment imaginable – in keeping with Islamic Sharia Law, Javed Iqbal was to die the same way he killed his victims. Iqbal’s attorney filed an appeal immediately. However, an appeal would be entirely unnecessary.
While in custody, Iqbal and one of his accomplices died under mysterious circumstances. After a post-mortem, it was determined that the accomplice had had force used against him. Official records state that he allegedly jumped out of a window.
On October 8th, 2001, Javed Iqbal was found dead in his jail cell on his 45th birthday. Some say he committed suicide. Others say it was a cover up – he was killed, and it was staged. Whatever the case may be, the fact remains that Pakistan was rid of the worst serial killer they’d ever seen.
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Sources:
The Mammoth Book of True Crime – Robin Odell
No Humanity Left – Cat McAuliffe on Ranker
Javed Iqbal WIkipedia page