Manama: Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior has made an arrest following a rare and gruesome murder that had shaken Bahrain.
The ministry tweeted on Sunday that a 35-year-old foreigner from an Asian country was arrested for a murder that was reported on Saturday.
“The body was found cut into pieces inside plastic bags in Al Mazra area near the scrap yard,” the police media centre said.
On Saturday, Abdul Jalil Humood, the imam of the Bin Shaddah Mosque in the northern town of Muharraq, was reported missing by his family.
He had left home to lead the Fajr prayers, but never returned.
On Sunday, the dismembered parts of his body were discovered in garbage bins near a scrap yard in the south of the country.
A local daily said that witnesses confronted a man who was spotted dumping bags in the scrap yard and he eventually admitted that they contained body parts.
“He said that he killed the imam of a mosque and chopped him into pieces because the latter got on his nerves,” the witness, a Pakistani national, said, quoted by Gulf Daily News.
“We were shocked and could not believe what he did, so we held him until police arrived.”
According to the victim’s brother, Abdul Jalil had been the imam of the small mosque for 15 years.
“Everything was fine, but he lately started having trouble with the muezzin who used the mosque hall to meet with his friends,” Amir said. “My brother repeatedly warned them to respect the status of the mosque and not to cause commotion inside it, but they did not comply. In fact, it seems that they started to plan a way to get rid of him.”
The victim is survived by 11 children, including three daughters, aged between one and 21, the family said.
Murders are a rare occurrence in Bahrain.
