MULTAN, June 18: The family of victims in a double murder case has alleged that police are pressuring it to strike a deal with the suspect(s) through a panchayat.

Sadaf, 30, and her four-year-old daughter Roma were butchered at their house in Shalimar Colony on May 5 last by some unidentified assailants. Her one and a half year old son, Uzaifa, remained unscathed.

Circumstantial evidences suggested that the killers were some acquaintances of the victims, as a jug half filled with soft drink and two tumblers were found from the drawing room of the house. Moreover, relatives and neighbours told investigators that Sadaf, in the absence of her husband Raheel, used to open door only for very close relatives.

Killing of Roma suggested that the assailants had cut short her life for fear of being identified. The first person to reach the spot was Raheel, who had returned to the house in the evening after closing his shop at the busy Husain Agahi Bazar. Raheel was also first to inform the police about the gory incident. He reached the house five to six hours after the murder.

After interrogating deceased's relatives, the police suspected that Raheel and his brother Khurram might be involved in the crime. It had come to the knowledge of the investigators that Sadaf had suspected on several occasions that her husband had illicit relations with his brother's wife.

However, the police investigation wing has so far failed to resolve the mystery of the double murder even after 40 days, though Raheel and Khurram are still in the custody of police without being formally arrested.

Sources in the investigation wing said the authorities were not applying the traditional tactics to make the suspects reveal truth for reasons best known to them. They said the suspects were rather enjoying facility to roam outside the investigation centre freely.

Deceased Sadaf's brother Kamran Ashraf, a complainant in the case, told Dawn that initially SP (investigation) Raja Sikandar Hayat claimed that evidences were suggesting Raheel's involvement in the matter. But later, the SP changed his mind and started saying that Raheel was innocent.

Kamran said when he pleaded that the police should first thoroughly interrogate the suspects before exonerating them, the SP got infuriated and warned that in the light of circumstantial evidences the police could also grill him (the complainant).

"The police should first start its investigation from me," said Kamran while demanding justice. He said his mother had written several letters to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to seek justice, but to no avail. He said SP Raja Sikandar had rather started exerting pressure on them for the last few days to strike a deal with Raheel.

When talked, the SP said neither Raheel nor any other relative of the deceased was found involved in the double murder. He, however, did not give details about investigation's outcome.

One of the investigators, who did not want to be named, said evidences and persistent contradictory statements of Raheel made him the prime suspect. He said the people, who were known to him (Raheel), had also pointed out his unusual mannerism on the day of incident.

He said he was at loss to understand that how his seniors were ruling out the involvement of acquaintance(s) in the crime when no valuable was found stolen and the assailants were killing Roma also because she could identify them while the infant was left safe and sound.

He said Uzaifa remained more than five hours with the bodies of his mother and sister, but there was no stain of blood on his clothes, though he could walk and recognize various portion of the house.

He said the killer(s) first tried to strangulate Sadaf with the help of a rope, perhaps, to give impression that she committed suicide but as she resisted they stabbed her to death. Roma met the same fate.