“There was no bad feeling towards him.” One motive detectives entertained was the theory Akhtar was the victim of a ritualistic killing brought about by a 30-year feud between two families in Pakistan. Police came up with this after visiting the poverty-stricken hamlet of Jaral Klan in Northern Pakistan in the summer of 1986. They discovered the trouble began in the village in the mid 1950s - five years before Akhtar’s birth - with a dispute between his family and another in the village over a “problem marriage.” More disputes over land and property in the village led to violent clashes on the dusty streets.
A TIGHTLY-BOLTED door, a spy-hole and a secret knock were not enough to keep the frail divorcee Renee McGowan safe in her top-floor flat. Mrs McGowan, 55, was divorced two years before her murder on July 23 1975 and, as she lived alone, had done all she could to protect herself from intruders. Yet someone still managed to get into her top-floor home at Evans Towers, off Manchester Road, and strangle the quiet, well-spoken woman. She was found partly clothed and with her wrists tied behind her back in her 14th floor flat by her fiance. Nothing was apparently missing from the flat and there was no sign of forced entry.