Murder-suicide: Woman shoots dead three daughters, husband before killing herself, says police

A severely-injured 12-year-old is the only survivor.

ISLAMABAD: A woman allegedly murdered her husband and three daughters while also injuring her son before committing suicide in Islamabad on Saturday in the jurisdiction of Aabpara Police Station.

Aabpara SHO Khalid Awan said, “I was informed by a mobile unit about the incident immediately [after] it happened and [we] rushed to the site,” he said. Neighbours had also reported hearing gunshots, Awan added.

He said that when they entered the house in Sector G-6/3, they saw six people including three young girls and a boy in a bloodied room.



Security officials stand outside the house where the woman allegedly murdered her husband and three daughters. PHOTO: NNI

Awan said that all six were rushed to Polyclinic Hospital. The woman, who was identified as Kausar Shaheen, her husband Muhammad Farooq Khattak and their daughters Rania, Aiza, and Raheela, were declared “dead on arrival”.

Their son, Abdul Rafay, was severely injured. Awan, while quoting neighbours, said that the couple used to quarrel frequently. Awan added that the pistol used in the shooting was recovered from the scene.

Speaking on the phone, a relative from the family’s hometown of Bogara in Karak District said that the couple had been arguing a lot and their differences had reached the point where they had been thinking about divorcing each other.

“The family was planning to go on an outing, but before leaving the house, the couple had a brawl that led to the incident,” said Inspector General of the Islamabad Police Tahir Alam Khan, who also inspected the crime scene.

Farooq worked at a private petroleum company and was financially sound, according to the police and his relatives.

Meanwhile, Rafay, the eldest child and only survivor, told The Express Tribune, “My mother and father were fighting and later she took out a pistol and started shooting at us.”

He said she shot at the children, then her husband, and then turned the gun on herself. The fifth-grader was hit in the shoulder, which is why he survived, said a hospital official.

“Rafay is still in the hospital in a state of shock and keeps asking staff to take him back home,” said Mohammad Atif, a relative of the victims.

“It is impossible for us to accept that the family is no longer with us…or that they died this way,” he said.



People gather outside the house in Sector G-6/3. PHOTO: NNI

Polyclinic medico-legal officer Dr Tanveer Malik said Rania, 7, and Nimra, 5, were shot in the back of their necks, while Nida, 2, was shot in the chest, and the alleged shooter, Shaheen, 40, had a single gunshot wound on the side of her head. The doctor said the husband, aged between 40 and 45 years, had been shot in the chest.

He said the evidence showed that all of the victims were shot at close range — less than one metre — and possibly point-blank, while Shaheen’s injury suggested a contact shot.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2015.