That is all the response we as a society have about the killings on such a massive scale. Yet, unfortunately we are accustomed to show this apathy on such sad occasions. After a few days, perhaps, we would forget it to let another Javed Iqbal doing the same.

Keeping all the pros and cons on the surface, no effort has been made as yet to analyse the issue scientifically. No empirical data has been collected  – most of which has been wasted by now.

If we look at the whole incident there are certain factors which are confusing and do not permit a clearly defined verdict.

Initially when the issue surfaced two things caught our attention: Firstly, two acid-drowned bodies; and secondly, the accused's writings that reflected his own version of the gory incident.

At that time his writings were the only available data then to evolve an opinion about the incident. Technically speaking the letters signified in him a psychotic, because they were lacking coherence and reflected delusional ideation. However, in the absence of a complete personality profile of the accused it is a partial assessment.
Later on, acidic material was found at his residence. That indicated the involvement of calculated, well-organised and influential people having high level of scientific know how. The secrecy with which the whole crime has been committed led us to infer that a whole group plotted this heinous crime. This seemed further truer when police arrested his accomplices. According to the official reports they confessed their involvement in the killings. But the custodial killing, which might better be called a murder now, changed the whole dimension. The way Ishaq was killed in police custody reminds us of the traditional police strategy to hide hideous crimes with big names. At the same time other speculations about the incident have also been surfaced. They range from the trade of the human organs to smuggling of children abroad. But this has yet to be substantiated with evidence.

After having careful examination of all the related aspects of incident, I should state, it does not seem like a pathological activity. The whole drama is not the product of some psychopathic state of mind. It is more than that.

Psychopaths, now called as anti-social personalities, are very impulsive in nature and they cannot make long term planning in an organised manner. If we recall the notorious serial killers – who were psychopaths – we shall come to know that in each case a gap between the two killings was always there. Though the duration varies from case to case, but none of them killed more than one person in one day intentionally. Accidentally, yes, they killed more than one person, because they had to do it as per need.

What does this gap indicate? The answer is simple and understandable. Killing people satisfies their impulsive demands. How frequently they kill people depends on how strong the impulse is. If someone kills more than two persons a day, as in Javed's case, means his impulse is very strong which should also effect the other of his life aspects. This much strong impulse would not let a person sit still or to plan so meticulously. With this strong impulse to kill the people, a person, however, is prone to be identified and caught very easily. In Javed's case only his sexually perverted behaviour was on the surface, otherwise his killing nature was never identified as far as the available information is concerned. Labeling him as a psychopath is a contestable notion because of the following factors:

• frequency of killings
• highly scientific method to dissolve the bodies
• well planned and highly organised manner to keep the things secret
• involvement of more than one person
• custodial killing of one of Javed's accomplices

As far as the label of paedophilia is concerned it seems very naïve and cannot be substantiated in psychological terms.

The author is a clinical psychologist and director of Image Institute of Learning, . His interpretation is based on information available at the time of writing this article, December 1999.

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