PESHAWAR, Oct 30: Unidentified assailants on Sunday shot dead a newly-wed couple who had left their homes in Quetta and had got married here, official sources said.

The young bride and groom were gunned down in Gulbahar Colony. Sources alleged that members of the bride’s family were involved in the fatal shooting.

Bibi Ayesha, daughter of Abdul Haleem Agha, had eloped with Jaffar, son of Haji Akbar, from Quetta and got married in Peshawar on Saturday.

Police officials said that although Jaffar had relatives in the city he could not persuade them to shelter him and his wife in their homes when they were told that they had eloped together.

The couple were staying in a hotel on the Grand Trunk Road. However, on Sunday morning one of Jaffar’s relatives, Gul Badshah, a resident of Akhundabad, offered to take him to his home, sources said.

While the couple was travelling along with Badshah and his two-and-a-half-year old son in the latter’s jeep some unknown persons waylaid them at the Khattak intersection and opened fire on them. Jaffar and Ayesha were killed on the spot.

Badshah’s son was hit by four bullets and was admitted to the Lady Reading Hospital.

Jaffar’s brother-in-law Naimat, son of Abdul Manan, also hailing from Quetta, registered a case and accused Bibi Ayesha’s father Abdul Haleem Agha, and her two uncles Abdul Qayyum Agha and Abdul Qadeer Agha of killing the couple. Police have registered a case and have begun a search for the culprits.