“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.