Multiple murders in family shake Multan

Three killed as 12 members of a family of 14 are poisoned and tortured.

MULTAN: Unknown assailants broke into a house in Mehmood Kot Colony, Dosan Road and killed three people, while three children were critically injured.

Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) driver Iqbal Gill and his brother Ghulam Rasool left work at 4.30 and returned to their house near Dosan Road to find that his entire family had been poisoned. Gill has ten sons and one daughter Anum.

When he returned home he found that someone had poisoned the entire family and his wife and children were lying unconscious on the floor. “Three of my sons, Imran (7), Arsalan (6) and Kashif (15) were hanging by a rope in the bedroom but they were still alive,” Gill told the police, adding that Rescue 1122 officials had shifted all three boys to Nishar hospital.

“Arsalan and Kashif are in critical condition and we don’t know what more we can do for them, their throats have been cut with a knife, they have sustained bullet wounds and were hung,” said Nishtar hospital attending Dr Sanaullah. Doctors said that Imran had been shifted to the ICU and was improving.

Gill said that at first he could not tell who was dead and who was unconscious as everyone was lying on the floor. Eventually police and Rescue 1122 officials confirmed that the murderers had killed Gill’s son Atif (22), who is an employee at a medical company, Gill’s brother Tehrim (20) and his sister-in-law (Ghulam’s wife) Gulshan (24). All of the victims had been slashed with knives, shot and poisoned.  “It is hard to identify one cause of death as the people were poisoned, stabbed and shot but the bodies have all been sent for autopsy,” Rescue 1122 official Tayyab told reporters.

According to Gill’s neighbours this murder was not an isolated incident. “Three months ago there was a knife fight between several boys in the family and their cousins regarding the marriage of their sister Anum (17),” Gill’s neighbour Waseem told reporters, adding that the family had arranged a ‘watta satta’ marriage of Anum with one of the sons of his cousin, Gulshan’s father. “There was also an exchange of property involved in the matter and apparently ‘negotiations’ turned sour,” he said.

Police officials said that the murderers entered the house by jumping off a wall in the neighbours’ yard.  “They entered silently because no one heard anything and they certainly left silently,” said Multan capital police (CPO) Bilawar Abbas Naqvi, adding that the police had conducted a preliminary investigation and had cordoned off the area. “No one in the family has blamed anyone for the murders, they are not willing to point out any names,” he said, adding that neighbours had confirmed that there was a family dispute that may have been the cause behind the murders.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken notice of the murders and has ordered a speedy inquiry into the incident by CPO Naqvi. Senior superintendent police (SSP) operations Muhammad Yusuf said that the case definitely seemed to involve a family dispute. “That is the only reason why the family would keep quiet about something like this,” he said, adding that Gill’s wife had refused to comment and Gill was not pointing out any names.

Police officials said that they were waiting for an autopsy report on the three bodies before they could identify or pursue the murderers.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2010.