Javed Iqbal Mughal
Intro
When you think of the world’s worst serial killers there may be a few names that instantly spring to mind: Jack The Ripper, The Angel of Death, Ed Kemper, El “Arropiero”, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy… all are depraved, sadistic killers who took pleasure in murdering and torturing innocent men and women. There is another monster out there, a monster so depraved and so sick, that he has been labelled one of the worst killers in History.
Javed Iqbal Mughal was a twisted, manipulative and incredibly sick individual who used his wealthy lifestyle to lure, abuse and kill the vulnerable street children of Pakistan. The following harrowing events took place in Lahore, Pakistan, between 1998 and 1999. This story comes with a warning as each one of his victims was a child.
This is the disturbing, true story of how Javed Iqbal became one of the most sadistic and prolific serial killers in history.
Cruel and Demanding: The young Javed Iqbal Mughal
Javed Iqbal was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1956 and was one of eight children. His father, Muhammed Ali, was an Indian refugee who made a life for himself in Pakistan. Muhammed Ali was a very prosperous businessman, and he and his wife were able to give their eight children a very comfortable life with an abundance of food, shelter and love, but despite his loving upbringing, one of Javed’s brothers described him as a ‘stubborn, cruel and demanding’ child who derived pleasure in harming, even torturing small animals.
According to the Macdonald Triad, which is used as a marker to determine whether someone would develop sinister behaviours in later life, there are three categories of behaviours that can indicate whether a person may develop violent behaviours: Enuresis (bed wetting), Arson (Fire starting) and Cruelty to Animals. It is said that if any of these behaviours are displayed beyond the age of five, the individual is at risk of future violent behaviour and/or tendencies.
As Javed grew older, his dark behaviors started to get him in trouble with the law. In one such incident, his neighbors reported him to the police for the strange and disturbing behavior he exhibited towards their children. However, thanks to the wealth of his father, he was able to “pay off” the authorities to avoid any legal ramifications that might have arisen due to his “unconventional sexual inclinations and difficult personality.”
It was well-known that Javed had a disturbing way of interacting with children, but his parents were always on hand to bail him out of any troublesome situations, hoping that Javed would see the error of his ways and potentially be able to “straighten himself out.” However, Javed Iqbal’s life continued to spiral down the road of incomprehensible crimes.
The Lure of a Predator
In his mid-20s, Javed Iqbal Mughal ran a steel casting business that operated out of one of the villas his father purchased for him. He used his workplace and his home to lure vulnerable children from the streets straight into his hands. These vulnerable individuals, often referred to as ‘invisible’ or ‘street children,’ would be drawn to him because he offered them food, shelter, and even a paid wage.
The ‘invisible children’ whom Javed targeted were usually orphaned, living on the streets without protection from adults, such as family members or sometimes even the authorities. It has been reported that only 34% of children under the age of five are registered at birth in Pakistan, making them entirely off the grid for protection but a perfect target for Javed.
Javed was well-known for having ‘inappropriate relationships‘ with young boys, which had gotten him into trouble with the law many times. He would often be seen driving around in one of his fancy cars with several young boys whom he referred to as “his boys.” However, he was always able to brush off questions surrounding the young boys living with him, as according to Javed, it “helped streamline the operation of the factory, ensuring readily available assistance at all times.“
Javed Iqbal didn’t just use his own business to lure children into his life; he also used his wealth to open the first video arcade in the district. In this arcade, he allowed children to play for free or receive free tokens. Additionally, he established an aquarium and contacted children through a children’s magazine to become pen pals. In exchange for photos, he would send them money and gifts. He even went as far as opening an air-conditioned school called Sunnyside School – all of these were simply ploys to attract children, particularly young boys.
At the arcade, it was reported that Javed would ‘accidentally’ drop a 100 rupee note on the floor. If a child dashed to retrieve it, he would apprehend them, accuse them of being a thief, and take them into another room to be searched for other items they may have stolen. It was in this room where Javed would then assault the child. Sometimes, after the assault was over, he would even let the child keep the money.
A Twisted Monster Full of Evil
In 1990, Muhammed Ali, Javed Iqbal’s father passed away and although Javed inherited 3 million rupees, he lost the man who had bailed him out of many severe and dark situations with the law because of his wealth, but also because of his reputation as a great businessman.
In 1992 Javed Iqbal was arrested for sexually abusing two young boys and whilst in police custody, without the need to ‘respect’ Javed for his Fathers sake, they violently beat him and threatened to kill him if he ever attempted to repeat his actions. Once out of prison, another violent incident would occur – according to Javed, two teenage boys, who lived with him at the time, attacked him as he tried to stop them from abusing another young boy who also lived with him, but this was not the case.
The two young boys who Javed alleged attacked him did live with him, this much was true, but these boys were in fact instructed by Javed to go and find him a young boy off the street. As they went on the hunt, they found a young boy and told him that Javed would pay him to give him a massage. Once the boy arrived at Javed’s house, Javed raped the young boy and then fell asleep. The young boy, traumatized by the attack, found a gun in the home and whilst Javed was sleeping, the young boy bashes the butt of the gun into Javed’s skull.
The injuries sustained to Javed’s head left him unconscious in hospital for 22 days and caused him to suffer from a serious facial disfigurement. Although Javed survived, he needed many corrective surgeries which rapidly ate through his inheritance and also ended up with Javed losing his s home, his arcade, the fancy cars and even his aquarium.
Despite the injuries Javed sustained and the financial loss tied to his injuries, Javed stated that the most impactful event in his life was the death of his mother. Javed claims that his mother died due to the stress and devastation she witnessed because of his facial disfigurement and deteriorating health. Javed shared an exceptionally close bond with his mother and her untimely death ignited him with such a ferocious rage, that he catapulted himself to the top of the most disturbed and chilling serial killer both Pakistan and the world has ever known.
100 Mothers Will Cry
After his mother’s death, penniless and homeless due to all his heft medical bills, Javed found himself living in a small slum in Lahore. The address was 16 Ravi Road. It is within this address that Javed made it his mission to avenge his mother’s death. He made a pact to kill exactly one hundred children.
My mother cried for me. I wanted 100 mothers to cry for their children
Javed Iqbal Mughal quoted in his confession.
Javed started his sadistic rampage by forcing a handful of the teenagers who already worked for him to go out and find him young boys. The teenage boys would go out to the streets and lure young boys back to 16 Ravi Road with the promise of food. When they arrived, Javed would offer them a drink which was laced with a sedative.
Once the boy was disorientated, Javed would rape them and then strangle them to death with a thick metal chain. Javed would then dismember the body and place the body parts into vats of Hydrochloric Acid. He initially started to dispose of the dissolved bodies down a drain, until many complaints about a putrid smell began to arise. He then switched his method of disposal to dumping the remnants directly into the Ravi River.
Javed Iqbal would repeat this process exactly one hundred times. To keep meticulous track of his murderous spree, Javed would take a photograph of the boy in question and on the back of this image he would write down their name, their age, their physical description and a particular date.
In 1999, once Javed had murdered his one-hundredth victim, he sent a handwritten confession letter to the police and to the chief editor of a newspaper in Lahore called the Daily Jang.
"I have killed 100 beggar children and have put their bodies in a container. I could have killed 500, this was not a problem. Money was not a problem. But the pledge I had taken was of 100 children and I never wanted to violate this. I have no regrets. I was so badly beaten that my head was crushed and my backbone broken. I was left crippled. I hate this world. I was denied justice. My mother cried for me. I wanted 100 mothers to cry for their children."
The confession letter also indicated that he was going to drown himself in the Ravi River and that he had left three barrels of acid in his home, each with a dissolving body inside to prove what he had done. This confession prompted one of the biggest manhunts in Pakistan history – including dragging the Ravi River twice in the hopes of finding Javed’s body.
16 Ravi Road
As police entered 16 Ravi Road, they were met by a wall smeared with blood stains, attached to this wall was a plaque that read “the bodies in the house have been deliberately not been disposed of, so that authorities will find them.”
With the room stood two large, blue drums filled with dissolving human remains of his last few child victims. There were bags of children’s clothes, including shoes and beside the clothes a thick metal chain lay on the ground. Attached to two further walls was a piece of string with photographs of young boys attached; on the back of these images were a name, a physical description of the child and a date which turned out to be the death date of the child.
Once news broke out of Javed’s confession, parents fled to the police station, lining the streets in the hope they could find their missing child; others rummaged through the pile of clothes and shoes found at 16 Ravi Road to see if they could identify their children’s clothing. It is said that the wails of the parents as they identified their missing son’s shoes or clothes echoed deep into the night.
On December 30th 1999, Javed Iqbal walked into the Daily Jang Newspaper building and with him he brought a 32-page journal filled with details and photographs of all the children he had murdered and stated:
I am Javed Iqbal, killer of 100 boys. I hate this world, I am not ashamed of my actions, I am ready to die. I have no regrets. I killed 100 children
Javed Iqbal Mughal raped, killed and dismembered 100 innocent children in 1999 between July and November.
Javed Iqbal raped, killed and dismembered 100 innocent children in 1999 between July and November.
The Sentencing of Pakistan’s Worst Serial Killer
On the 15th of March 2000, Javed Iqbal was found guilty of the murder of 100 innocent and vulnerable young boys between the ages of six to sixteen. Javed did at one point try to retract his confession, stating he lied in order to ‘highlight the problem of vulnerable street children within Pakistan’.
The judge sentenced him to be ‘strangled to death one hundred times’ using the same chain he used on his victims, and then he was then to be ‘cut into 100 pieces and dumped into a vat of acid’.
*His accomplices were also found guilty and their sentences were as follows:
- Sajid Ahmed (17) was found guilty of 98 deaths and sentenced to death, plus 686 years in prison.
- Mohammed Nadeem (15) was found guilty of 13 deaths and was sentenced to 182 years in prison.
- Mohammed Sabir (13) was sentenced to 63 years in prison.
On October 8th 2001, Javed Iqbal and his accomplice Sajid Ahmed were both found hanging by their bedsheets in their cells at Kot Lakhpat prison. Although it was reported that both Javed and Sajid’s bodies were found to have injuries of strangulation, such as blood in their mouths and nostrils, Javed was also found to have sustained serious head injuries. Both deaths were officially ruled as suicides.
After Javed’s death, his family members did not claim his body stating;
We have nothing to do with him. He died for us on the day he confessed to killing 100 children
Family statement
It is safe to say that Javed Iqbal was a sadistic, cruel and cold-blooded murderer, who used his family’s status and wealth to lure vulnerable and neglected children for his own disturbing entertainment. Javed Iqbal never showed any remorse for the atrocities he inflicted upon his victims, some of whom were as young as six years old. The children who he abused and murdered were tricked into trusting him as he waved the promise of food and shelter in front of the faces of children who had nothing – Instead he took the only thing they had left, without it seems an ounce of regret.
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