May 3, 2005	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1426

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KARACHI, May 2: A man killed his two teenaged daughters here on Monday, making it the third such gruesome act in a span of 11 days in the city. The unemployed father of seven, 40-year-old Ayub, stabbed to death Sheza, 16, and Sheba, 15, in separate rooms of his rented house in Muhammadabad, Golimar No 2, police said.

Sources at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital said both girls suffered stab wounds in chest and neck. According to neighbours, they came to know about the incident when the younger children of Ayub ran out of the house after he started beating the two girls. The younger children ran to their grandparents’ house near their home.

Neighbours said after the incident Ayub walked to the police station and said he had killed his one daughter while the other was lying injured. Initially, police did not take him seriously, but later realised the gravity of the situation after seeing marks of wounds on his hands. Police shifted the two girls to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

The SHO of the Rizvia Society police station said it seemed that Sheza tried to resist and managed to lock herself in a room after being attacked by her father. Police had to break open the door to recover her body. She apparently died of excessive bleeding, the SHO added. Police said in his initial statement Ayub said he was jobless and could not rear his children and out of frustration killed his daughters.

Police said Ayub was extremely charged and had a scuffle with policemen at the police station. He also hurled abuses at any one who came to see him from outside the lockup, they added. Ayub was a plumber but had been out of work for considerable time, police said and added that daily expenses of the house were met by his wife who worked for a food industry.

Sheza and Sheba were students of class eighth and ninth at the Apwa School, Gulbahar No.2. The two girls had just returned home after appearing in the examination, police said. According to his wife, there were visible changes in Ayub’s behaviour after he saw TV reports about the killing of a family by a man in Civil Lines. “He usually didn’t used to watch the TV with interest, but he saw the entire report of the multiple murder case with deep interest aired by a TV channel the other day,” she said.

According to Ayub’s in-laws, they had sent him to Saudi Arabia where he worked as plumber but returned soon after he failed to find a job. Funeral prayers of the slain girls were offered at the Khaji ground. Later they were buried in the adjacent graveyard.