Pakistani Police Arrest Kin of Confessed Killer of Children

Hoping to bring a man who confessed to killing 100 children out of hiding, Pakistani police on Saturday arrested his ex-wife, daughter and son, the state-run news agency said.

On Thursday, police received a letter from a man who identified himself as Javed Iqbal. In the letter, Iqbal said he sexually assaulted the 100 children before killing them. He said that he is a trained chemical engineer and that he used chemicals to dispose of the bodies.

Iqbal’s letter gave instructions that led police to a large blue barrel in a home in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province, where they found the remains of two bodies. Iqbal, 40, apparently rented the home for the last eight months, according to a police report.

He also led police to pictures and clothes of his alleged victims. His letter said most of the pictures were taken in the Lahore house, but some were taken in the hills outside Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Police have not found any more bodies. But parents or relatives of 57 of the children have recognized clothing or identified photographs of missing children, police spokesman Riaz Shafqat said.

“We are working around the clock to try to find this man and identify the other children,” Shafqat said. In their report, police said they suspect that more than one person may have been involved.

Iqbal’s family members were arrested in an attempt to lure him out of hiding, Pakistan’s state-run news agency reported Saturday. Police earlier interrogated Iqbal’s brother, father and brother-in-law.

Iqbal was last seen Oct. 18 at his father’s home in Lahore, his brother was quoted as saying in the police report.

In his letter, Iqbal said he killed the children in retaliation for police abuse after being wrongly detained.