Sargodha landlord admits to killing, burying employee over theft accusation: police

A landlord in Sargodha has admitted to killing his employee and burying him in a crop field after accusing him of theft last month, police said on Sunday.
According to Sargodha police spokesperson Khurrum Iqbal, police at the Kot Momin police station received information on August 30 that an individual named Mazhar Iqbal had been kidnapped by his employer Amir on August 24.
The police immediately registered a case of kidnapping and began searching for the suspect and the abductee.
Within 12 hours, Amir was arrested, following which he confessed to killing Mazhar — who he claimed had stolen from him — and threw his body in a harvest field, according to the spokesperson.
Police reached the site of the incident and recovered the remains of the body.
“A case has been registered against the arrested suspect, who will be brought to justice and punished,” the spokesperson said.
He said that Sargodha Rescue 1122 Control Room received received a call on August 31, stating that bones from dead body were found lying in a field.
The police official added that Mazhar, 28, was an employee of the suspect.
On the accusations of theft, Mazhar was subjected to torture and subsequently killed, after which his body was thrown into the field, for which an ambulance from the Rescue 1122 Control Room was sent to the site of the incident.
On August 30, the victim’s uncle, Muhammad Aslam, registered a first information report (FIR) at the Kot Momin police station, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.
According to the FIR, Aslam met his nephew Mazhar at a fair 12 days prior to registering the case.
The victim told his uncle that he hadn’t been paid his salary for several months and was being tortured by his employer, Amir, without reason.
Mazhar had expressed his desire to work elsewhere, at which Amir had threatened him with “dire consequences,” according to the FIR.
It further stated that following that interaction, Aslam had no contact with his nephew, and his cellphone was switched off.
He went to Amir’s house and questioned the whereabouts of his nephew, to which Amir said Mazhar had left his employment without informing him and had gone elsewhere.
Upon investigating, Aslam was informed by two farmhands that on August 24, at around 10am, they saw Amir and five unknown men torturing Mazhar and pushing him into a car before speeding away.