- Police says circumstantial evidence suggests cancer patient killed his two stepbrothers, their wives and three children before committing suicide
- Family sources say deceased brothers had a property dispute
The peace and calm of the JoharTown locality of the city was marred by a startling revelation on Tuesday evening when residents of the area’s E-1 Block found out that eight people belonging to the same family had been killed in cold blood by unidentified murderers.
Police sources told Pakistan Today that they were informed about the incident by a relative of the victims after repeated efforts to connect with the family since Monday night failed.
The police found dead bodies of two men, two women and three children in the ground and first floors of the house. “All the deceased had been killed using a blunt weapon. However, we found the body of the eighth victim on the top floor of the house but there were no signs of torture on him,” said a police official present on the scene.
The deceased were identified as Shahid Iqbal, his wife Farzana Shahid and daughter Amna; Shahid’s real brother Zahid Iqbal, his wife Naseem Zahid and daughters Afaq and Areeba; and Shahid and Zahid’s stepbrother Nazir Iqbal, a cancer patient.
Lahore Police Chief Chaudhry Shafique Ahmad told reporters present on the scene that the incident seemed to be the result of enmity instead of robbery or targeted killing.
He said that the police had collected evidence such as DNA and fingerprints from the crime scene while chemical powder was also recovered near the bodies. He said that two teams led by SP CIA Umer Virk and Model Town SP Awais Malik would investigate the incident.
According to relatives present on the scene, the deceased family belonged to Jahanian Multan. Shahid Iqbal was a construction contractor while Zahid was a lecturer at a private university and both were happily married. Their stepbrother Nazir was a chemical engineer but he was suffering from cancer and was not unmarried.
CANCER PATIENT SUSPECTED OF MURDER:
Police investigators said that circumstantial evidence suggested that Nazir had killed his two brothers and their families and then committed suicide on the top floor of the house.
A police official asking not to be named told Pakistan Today that circumstantial evidence suggested that Nazir had used a chemical to make his family unconscious and later murdered them using a sharp edged tool. Later, he committed suicide by taking sleeping pills, he said.
“Nazir’s body did not bear any torture marks and we also found a blunt tool near his body which points to his involvement in the carnage,” he said, adding that a bottle of poisonous pills found near his body showed that he had committed suicide.
Naseer Iqbal, real brother of Zahid and Shahid who arrived from the United States just a day ago, told Pakistan Today that Nazir was a mentally challenged cancer patient and often demanded his property share. He said that despite the fact that they had already spent around Rs 10 million on his medical treatment, Nazir was not satisfied with his family’s efforts for him.
Meanwhile, the JoharTown police have registered an FIR [First Information Report] of the incident against “unidentified men” on the complaint of Wajid Iqbal, another brother of the deceased. The duty officer at the police station told Pakistan Today that the investigators would make headway in the probe once the autopsy and chemical examination reports of the victims were prepared. He said that sections of the anti-terrorism law had also been added to the FIR.
Muhammad Abid, a neighbor, told Pakistan Today that the gruesome incident had panicked the area residents and “I don’t think we’ll be able to overcome the shock and fear for a very long time”.
