KASUR: Allahabad police on Sunday claimed to have arrested the two suspects who earlier sought pre-arrest balls in the murder case of a Christian youth.

Police claimed that after the death of 22-yearold Saleem Masih, the pre-arrest balls of the suspects stood cancelled as the case had been converted into a murder and Section 302 of the PPC added to the first information report (FIR) lodged on Feb 25.

Landlord Muhammad Iqbal and seven others allegedly tortured Saleem Masih of Bagiana Khurd village on Feb 25 and he succumbed to his injuries in General Hospital, Lahore on Friday.

According to the FIR lodged on the complaint of Ghafoor Masih under sections 337-A1 and F-1, 147 and 149 of PPC, suspects Iqbal, Altaf, Jabbar, Haji Muhammad, Sher Dogar and three accomplices tortured and critically injured his son, Saleem, early on Feb 25.

They also tied his son with chains and tortured him severely in the fields of Dogar.

A case was registered, but the FIR did not mention any motive of the sus-pects behind the alleged torture.

Allahabad police Station House Officer Muhammad Ramzan told Dawn that the complainant would record his statement regarding the motive on Monday (today). He also said that a motiveless FIR mostly went in the favour of the suspects, but the fact remained that a man had died.

He further said that the suspects had handed over the victim to police the same day accusing him of stealing turmeric from the fields. He said the suspects had caught the victim at 4am, but handed him over to police at 7am.

The victim had been tortured and there was no justification on the part of the suspects to torture Saleem, the SHO added.

A police official requesting anonymity said that it did not appeal to common sense that someone could take a bath in a tubewell at 4am in February.

Police, on Friday, added Section 302 of the PPC to the FIR already lodged against the suspects after which their pre-arrest bails were dismissed.

Police were reluctant to disclose the names of the two suspects arrested.

They also claimed to be conducting raids to arrest the remaining suspects.