A teenager shot dead his parents and six siblings on Sunday because his father could not feed the family, police said. Muhammad Afzal, 18, is believed to have drugged his parents, two sisters, and four brothers, before tying them up and killing them, senior police officer Syed Mehmood Gilani said.
The dead siblings were aged between three and 16 years, he added, saying that the victims “all died on the spot”. Police suspect that the victims were given sleeping drugs before being shot but are waiting for the autopsy report for confirmation. The victim family lived in the Kallar Abadi area of Gujranwala, precincts of Baghbanpura Police Station.
Afzal, who was the eldest of the children, initially told police that bandits had killed his family during a burglary but was arrested by officers after finding no signs of forced entry. He then confessed to the murders, saying he decided to kill all of them because he could not break the cycle of poverty. “His father, Asghar, was a donkey cart owner and he told us that the father had been unable to feed the family twice a day,” police said.
None of his children attended school. Reportedly, Asghar was also involved in gambling which had been causing tensions in the family. Some reports also suggest that the murderer was a heroin addict and he had killed his family after losing control over his mind.
