Deadly dispute: Four lives lost in apparent family feud

Unidentified men gun down three women, one man of a family before torching the house .

DAGGAR:

Four members of a family, including three women, were killed when unidentified assailants attacked their house in Palwari area of Gokan, Buner district on Monday.

Daggar police official Muhammad Ali said residents of Palwari called the police around 3am, explaining armed men opened fire at Mahabir’s house and then set it on fire. After hearing gunshots, neighbours rushed to the house but the flames had already engulfed the entire structure. “One of the neighbours saw four men with arms escaping to the nearby mountains after the attack,” the official added.

The official said Mahabir along with his wife Bakht Mina, daughter Gul Naz and daughter-in-law Sansihat were killed on the spot.

Doctors at the district headquarters hospital said the autopsy of the deceased revealed they were shot dead and then their house was torched due to which the bodies were severely charred.

According to the initial investigation, Gul Naz was first engaged to a man in the area but due to a family dispute, the engagement was broken off and she was married to another man. Her former fiancé was threatening them and had earlier attempted an attack on Mahabir in which the latter narrowly escaped.

Police filed the case and further investigation is underway. An FIR, however, has not been filed yet.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2014.