Grisly crime: Quadruple murders baffle Karachi neighbourhood

Qari Tariq, his wife, son, daughter found dead in their house; second son survives.

KARACHI: The mysterious killing of a man, his wife and two children shocked residents of an impoverished residential neighbourhood of Karachi on Wednesday.

Qari Tariq Khan, 45, his wife Samina, 40, 15-year-old son Saad and 13-year-old daughter Romesa were found murdered with a sharp-edged weapon inside their house in Manzoor Colony. Tariq’s youngest son Hammad, 8, survived with critical wounds. After the quadruple murders, the house was set on fire.

The grisly incident was discovered when residents saw a thick cloud of smoke billowing from the small house. Tariq taught the Holy Quran to children in the neighbourhood. Residents said that the family, which hailed from Dera Ismail Khan, had rented the house two-and-a-half years ago. Abdul Ghaffor, the owner of the house and Tariq’s paternal uncle, lives in the upper floor of the house. The incident occurred on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.

“In the middle of the night we woke up thick smoke coming from the ground floor of the house,” said Ghaffor. “We rushed down to find the door locked from outside. Four bodies were lying in a pool of blood, while Hammad, with critical wounds, was crying hysterically.”

Police investigators denied runours that Tariq had killed his family before committing suicide. “Setting the house on fire was an attempt to destroy evidence,” Baloch Colony SHO Yasin Gujjar said.

“If Tariq had killed his family and then committed suicide, then how could he lock the door from outside and how could he set the house on fire.”

The mysterious quadruple murder has baffled the police as family claims Tariq had no family feud. “My brother had no enmity,” said the victim’s brother Irfan. Police believe Tariq and his wife were killed while they were asleep. “The victims were possibly drugged before they were slaughtered,” SHO Gujjar said. “The killers were two or more as one person could not carry out such a grisly, multiple murder.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th,  2015.