Iqbal confessed in his letter that he planned to drown himself in the Ravi River following his crimes but after unsuccessfully dragging the river with nets, police launched what was, at that time, the largest manhunt Pakistan had ever witnessed.



Four accomplices, teenage boys who had shared Iqbal's three-bedroom flat, were arrested in Sohawa.

Within days, one of them died in police custody, allegedly by jumping from a window, though a post-mortem suggested that force had been used against him.