December 29, 2001	Saturday	Shawwal 13, 1422

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LAHORE, Dec 28: Five of a family, including three children, were found dead on Friday under mysterious circumstances in an isolated house in North Cantonment.

Abdul Jabbar told Dawn that his brother Abdul Islam, 42, with his wife Samia, 37, sons Fahad, 12, Basil, 9, and daughter Ramsha, 5, had been living in an under-construction house in the New Officer’s Colony for the last one year.

He said it was on Dec 24 when Islam had met one of his relatives Tanvir Siddiqui last. He said children of Siddiqui and his brother studied in the same school. He quoted Siddiqui as saying the children did not come to school and he tried to contact Islam by telephone. On visiting his house, he said he learnt through watchman that the house had been locked for the last two days. He said he found the body of Islam and Ramsha in one room and Fahad and Basil in another. Samia’s body was recovered from a bath on upper storey, he added.

Siddiqui maintained all the bodies were tied, adding cooked rice spreading around suggested the deceased were taking dinner. The intruders also killed pet parrots and left no apparent clue.

The bodies, removed to the mortuary, seemed to be two to three days old and were partially decomposed. Islam and his elder son Fahad had scars of torture on their faces, suggesting they might have put some resistance.

Returned from Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago, Islam took to the business of construction, Jabbar said. He said he used to live in the house constructed to be sold. Islam had sold a house in Allama Iqbal Town last year and made profit, he added, insisting he had no enmity.

He claimed it was a dacoity-cum-murder as the outlaws took away a TV set and a VCR. He maintained police had refrained them from checking other things.

Police, on the other hand, claimed Islam was going through financial stringency these days. Initial findings suggested the victims had fallen prey to some enmity within family, police claimed. The incident took place on the night between Dec 24 and 25, they claimed.

SUICIDE: The man who had reportedly set himself on fire on Thursday died in the Mayo Hospital on Friday.

Police said that Bilal, 25, was jobless and also an addict. He torched himself when his parents refused to give him money for drugs.