A man reportedly stabbed to death four women of his family on Saturday.
The incident in a neighbourhood in the Shahkot city police station precinct shocked local residents.
The killer slit the throats of his mother, wife, brother's wife and younger sister with a sharp weapon.
He fled from the home after killing the four women.
According to the police report, the suspect named Shakeel Akram hailed from Bhakkar district. He was living with his mother, wife, sister and sister-in-law in a rented house in Bismillah Gulshan Colony in Shahkot.
He had reportedly deserted from his service in the Frontier Constabulary in Quetta and rented the house in Shahkot.
He was living with his family and worked as a security guard at a local textile mills.
He reportedly slit the throats of his 55-year-old mother Kaniz Fatima, 25-year-old wife Shabana, his brother Rohail Akram's 28-year-old wife Zunera, and 18-year-old sister Faiza with a sharp tool. The accused also cut the veins of the victims' arms.
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As soon as the incident was reported, District Police Officer (DPO) Nankana Ismail Kharak rushed to the spot with a heavy contingent of police.
The suspect has three sons aged six, four and two years.
The slain Zunera also had a two-year-old daughter.
According to local people, Shakeel often used to quarrel with his wife and mother.
The suspect was at large till late evening. Police shifted the bodies to the tehsil headquarters hospital for postmortem
Officials said investigation into the incident was underway.
They said the investigation done so far had revealed that the suspect and a sister of his had been married in the same family in Faisalabad.
His sister used to come to her parents' house whenever she had a quarrel at her home and went back after settlement with her in-laws. A few days ago, she came to her brother's house in Shahkot after a quarrel with her husband.
Shakeel's father Akram wanted to send his daughter back to the home of her in-laws but he was not in favour of sending back his sister. The differences over the issue resulted in prolonged tension in the house.
On Saturday, the father of the suspect asked him again to send his sister back to her home, which resulted in an altercation between them.
Shakeel reportedly warned his father against going to drop his daughter at her home. The father ignored his threats and took his sister with him to Faisalabad. Shakeel was enraged over this and he killed the four women of his family after his father and sister left the home.
SHO Shahkot City Police Station Tasawur Munir said action was being taken to arrest the suspect.
Incidents of murder involving family were not uncommon in the province.
On January 22, a renowned psychiatrist of Multan killed his daughter over a domestic dispute and later on ended his life with the same weapon at his residence in Justice Hameed Colony.
As per initial investigation, the victim Dr Aliza was shot in the neck by her father and was rushed to the hospital by her mother Bushra. However, the victim passed away before she could avail medical treatment.
The family claimed that the accused Dr Azhar was suffering from heightened stress. The 66-year-old psychiatrist had retired from Nishtar hospital nearly six years ago as the professor of psychiatry.
Later on, he continued to practice psychiatry from his residence in Multan.
The children of Dr Aliza were inside the house when the incident occurred. The deceased was a mother of one son and two daughters between the ages of one to five years.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2021.
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