Father of Dismembered Boy Arrested in Case

The father of an 11-year-old Hacienda Heights boy whose dismembered body was found in a trash container last month was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of committing the murder, authorities said.

Dr. Khalid Parwez, 38, was arrested at an undisclosed location and taken to the sheriff’s Industry Station, where he was held without bail, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Dick Walls. He declined to provide further details.

Parwez had not previously been identified publicly as a suspect. It was Parwez, a gynecologist at Kaiser Permanente, who had reported his son, Raheel, missing shortly before the boy’s remains were found Nov. 17 at a Hacienda Heights condominium complex.

The boy’s uncle, Sattar Ahmed, 27, previously identified as a prime suspect, was still being sought, Walls said.

Ahmed, who lived at the condominium where the body was found, reportedly told deputies that he had dropped the boy off at school the morning of Nov. 16. But deputies said that after the initial questioning, Ahmed disappeared.

Detectives said they have since found evidence in Ahmed’s apartment leading them to believe that the youth was strangled there.

Kareem Ahmed, a brother of Raheel’s mother, Amtul Karim Parwez, said Wednesday night that her initial reaction to the arrest was “shock.”

“But then,” he said, “she felt glad that whoever had done this to her son has been arrested.”

Raheel and his 7-year-old brother, Nabeel, were the subjects of a bitter custody battle. Parwez and his 30-year-old wife were divorced last year.

Court documents revealed that Superior Court Judge Frances Rothschild had granted custody of both children to their father after hearing allegations that the mother was mentally unstable and possibly dangerous to her sons.

Amtul Parwez, in turn, claimed that her ex-husband beat the children for such actions as loaning toys to friends and for leaving the lights on, according to court papers.

Relatives of the mother claimed that a psychiatric report allegedly refuted earlier findings that she had mental problems. They added that Parwez was fearful he might lose custody of his sons to her.

“They were members of the Amedia Movement, a religious cult in Pakistan that is probably about as eccentric as the Moonies are here,” said Dr. Charles Nasem, an uncle of Amtul Parwez.

Nabeel, has since been placed in protective custody. His father and mother were seeking custody of him in closed hearings held earlier this week.