News Analysis |
The mysterious knife wielding woman stabber of Karachi is still at large. On 15th October, 2017, the Punjab police claimed to have arrested him from Mandi Bahauddin through a joint operation with a special unit of Karachi police led by Captain® Haider Raza. The suspect, named Waseem, had previously been involved in similar attacks in 2015 and had been released on bail, after which he was declared an absconder from the court.
Most of the victims, however, were working women and the culprit was following a pattern and an agenda. The other suspects arrested for being his accomplices had previously served in Adiala jail for various crimes
The local police suspected him to have been the same attacker that has injured more than 18 women in different areas of Karachi throughout this month. Waseem has been in custody of the local law enforcement and is yet to be brought to Karachi. However, these claims failed miserably when on 17th October, a 15 year old girl named Areej was stabbed in the Dastagir area of Karachi.
Briefing the Senate Committee on Human rights, DIG Karachi (East) Sultan Khwaja confirmed that the evidence observed shows that Waseem is not the same attacker. Waseem had used 16 different cell phones and sims but none of them had been used in or around Karachi, so the evidence suggests that Waseem had in fact not been in Karachi during the Knifeman’s attacks and could not be the same attacker.
Read more: Karachi’s ‘Jack Ripper’ on stabbing spree
The Karachi police, however, are still optimistic about Waseem’s arrest and insistent that the latest knife attack is different from the previous attacks and it could represent a different person.
London’s Jack the Ripper?
Mysterious attacks in Karachi bring to mind the saga of “Jack the Ripper”. In end nineteenth century, between 1888 and 1891, eleven women, almost all prostitutes were stabbed by an unknown attacker in the White Chapel district of London. He was never arrested. More than 100 thesis exist to this day to claim who he was but it was never conclusively settled. A famous film claimed that killer was an insane member of the royalty, a royal physician, a surgeon and that’s why his identity was never revealed.
Psychiatrists, giving opinions on TV, believe that the mystery man is psychologically repressed and is showing signs of ‘misogyny’. Misogyny is described as a compulsive hatred for women
This idea germinated because attacker after slitting the throats of his victims also ripped apart their abdomens and threw their bowels around. The name “Jack the Ripper” came into existence due to a mysterious letter received by newspapers, but now its believed that it was a hoax to increase circulation. Police to this is not even sure if the five original murders, called “Canonical Five” in 1888 were linked to the other murders that kept happening till 1891.
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In Karachi, the first attack took place in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on 25th September and the last reported attack was on 5th October 2017. After that, the ripper fell silent. There were vigorous attempts by the Sindh government to put an end to this perilous character and had constituted several search parties and committees to resolve the matter. The Chief Minister Sindh, Murad Ali Shah himself had ordered the Karachi law enforcement agencies to apprehend the culprit immediately.
The first major ‘breakthrough’ in the man-hunt had come when the police claimed to have nabbed the primary suspect’s accomplice, identified as ‘Shehzad’. This arrest was based on the fact that the suspect had a knife in his possession.
There were vigorous attempts by the Sindh government to put an end to this perilous character and had constituted several search parties and committees to resolve the matter
The police have, as of now, made a total of 38 arrests and all of them are still being interrogated. psychiatrists, giving opinions on TV, believe that the mystery man is psychologically repressed and is showing signs of ‘misogyny’. Misogyny is described as a compulsive hatred for women.
Its onset could be due to various traumas experienced by an individual including parental oppression, child abuse or heartbreak, the most common stimulant in killing sprees. But Karachi attacker, to this day, has not tried killing anyone; he merely stabs and runs off, in certain instances these stabs are mere scratches. Some analysts, therefore, suspect that he is a kind of disturbed person who seeks satisfaction in creating news.
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There have been multiple serial-killers or attackers in Pakistan, the most recent being a stabber in Rawalpindi who was arrested in August 2016 along with four accomplices. The culprit identified as Muhammad Ali, aged 24, attacked all of 18 women over a span of 2 months, one of whom had succumbed to her injuries.
The name “Jack the Ripper” came into existence due to a mysterious letter received by newspapers, but now its believed that it was a hoax to increase circulation
Most of the victims, however, were working women and the culprit was following a pattern and an agenda. The other suspects arrested for being his accomplices had previously served in Adiala jail for various crimes. The statements taken from these attackers suggested that they committed these crimes for ‘recreational’ purposes and to spread panic.
Also, similar attacks were carried out, against women, by three different people in Sahiwal in 2015. These attackers, upon apprehension, claimed that they wanted to eliminate ‘independently moving’ women. The Karachi serial killer has been spreading chaos in Karachi and women all around are awaiting his arrest anxiously.