Brutal: Family murdered on Tuesday laid to rest

Police suspect eldest brother, are running tests.

LAHORE:

Eight of a family found killed at their home on Tuesday were laid to rest at Chaman Shah graveyard in Gujranwala on Wednesday. The funeral prayers were offered at Dhobi Ghat Ground, Gujranwala.

Investigation DIG Zulfiqar Hameed told The Express Tribune that police suspected that Nazeer, the eldest of the three brothers killed, had murdered his family members and committed suicide or had died due to unknown reasons. He said, “We do not have evidence [yet] to support our claims. The matter will become clearer once the forensic reports arrive.” Police said the family of the deceased would also be interrogated then.

Seven of the eight family members had been found bludgeoned to death on Tuesday afternoon. The initial post-mortem report, released on Wednesday, suggested that they had died from head injuries. The report says seven of the eight bodies had borne signs of torture...a blunt instrument had been used to bludgeon their heads. “Nazeer only had a fresh scratch on the back of his hand,” Professor Dr Tajammul at the Jinnah Hospital told The Express Tribune.

The report says the skull bones of seven of the family had fractured in the attack.

Dr Tajammul said one of the victims, Farzana, had a deep cut between her index and middle finger. The report also says that the victims had swallowed something that had made them faint before they were attacked.

Dr Tajammul said, “The bodies of all eight victims exuded a strange odour that is not characteristic of dead bodies.” He said, “We suspect the smell was from the chemicals used to make them faint.”

Dr Tajammul told The Express Tribune that blood samples had been sent to the chemical lab to confirm whether the victims had been poisoned or sedated. He said a chemical in powder form had also been found from the house. He said they had initially suspected ammonia nitrate...”we can only say for sure once the test results are received”.

He also said that Nazeer had several scars on his body, including surgical ones. Nazeer’s liver, large intestine and blood samples had been sent for tests to confirm the cause of his death. “We think he died from some poison,” he said.

Township DSP Qaiser Mushtaq said the police believed that Nazeer had been scratched when one of the family members had resisted the attack.

He said they had disregarded the possibility of killing during robbery because gold jewellery and other valuables had not been taken from the house.

One of the women had some strands of hair clutched in her hand, he said. The strands were being tested to see if they matched Nazeer’s, the DSP said.

He said the family of the deceased had told them that they did not have any enemies.

Dr Fakhar at the Jinnah hospital said, “Although a single strand of hair may not be positively matched to a person, it is still valuable evidence.”

The FIR for incident was registered at the Johar Town police station against unnamed suspects on the complaint of one of the brothers of the deceased men, Zahid Ali.

Dr Naseer, one of the brothers of the deceased men, who has arrived from the US, told The Express Tribune it seemed that the police were trying to rush the case to cover the embarrassment of wrongly pinning the murders on their eldest brother Nazeer. “He was a cancer patient for 10 years, he was not neurotic,” he said. “We cannot believe what police are saying. Nazeer would never murder his family. We will wait for the forensic results.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.