Pakistan Jails U.S. Surgeon in 13 Murders

LAHORE, Pakistan — A Pakistani-born American heart surgeon was arrested today for killing 13 people in the last month “for the fun of it,” police said.

Sohrab Aslam Khan, 42, who was a cardiologist at Baylor University Hospital in Texas before returning to Lahore in 1981, was arrested and charged today in the serial killings, police said.

“He is a beast, not a human being,” provincial Police Chief Sabahuddin Jami told a news conference.

He described Khan as a “maniac or saboteur who killed for the fun of it.”

Khan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has admitted to nine of the murders, police said.

Khan stalked four of his victims during a Nov. 13 shooting spree. Circling Lahore’s spacious Mall Road on a motorcycle, he killed a dog catcher, an unidentified man, a service station attendant and a night watchman, police said.

The doctor killed again Nov. 20, shooting two night watchmen and a rickshaw driver and dumping their bodies in a canal, police said.

The last murder was on Tuesday when Khan is accused of killing a pharmacist in a drugstore. Khan’s driver’s license was found on a motorcycle at the scene.

Khan also is charged with killing a hotel waiter who failed to bring his order quickly, police said.