KARACHI, Feb 22: A couple was found dead inside their Korangi home on Tuesday, officials said.

Inspector Shakir Ali of the Awami Colony police station said that the couple returned home late last night after attending a wedding ceremony without their nine-year-old daughter, Fatima, who stayed at her paternal cousins' home in the same street.

“When the girl returned home at about 10am she found her parents dead in their bedroom.”

He said that Fatima's screams drew the attention of the neighbours who called in the police and comforted the girl. The bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and then handed over to the victims' relatives after completing medico-legal formalities, he added.

The victim Ahmed Ali was in his mid-forties while his wife was in her late 30s.

“Doctors in their initial findings suggest that the couple were strangled to death and the man was also hit in the head with some hard and blunt stuff,” said Korangi SP Nasir Aftab.

“Ahmed Ali's younger brother lived in the same street, where his daughter stayed the night. There is no immediate motive or people we have been able to find, but facts gathered by investigators show that there was a history of enmity within the family.”

He said that a few years ago another couple of the same big family met the same fate over some dispute with others. He said victim Ahmed Ali belonged to a lower-middle-class family and employed with an industrial unit as a wage earner.

Man booked for killing wife in Surjani

A woman was gunned down inside her parent's home in Surjani Town on Tuesday, police said.

They said that 27-year-old Sidra Adnan reached her parent's home in Sector 4-A of Surjani Town on Monday night after having some altercation with her husband.

“It's a freewill couple that tied the knot more than five years ago,” said Inspector Mudassir Rafiq, the SHO of the Surjani Town police station. “According to the victim's family, soon after their marriage Sidra came to know about the criminal record of her husband, Adnan, and this affected their relationship.”

He said that Sidra was living with her husband in a housing society near the airport until Monday night when she finally returned to her parents' home with her four-year-old daughter to seek a separation from her husband.

“Adnan came to see her on Monday night but failed to convince her to return to their home. He visited her again on Tuesday morning and after a heated exchange of arguments he pulled out a pistol and fired a single shot at her from pointblank range,” said the area SHO.

She was hit in the head and died on the spot. However, Adnan managed to escape. The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination. “We raided Adnan's home but it was locked while his cellphone was also switched off.”

A case (FIR 94/2011) was registered against Adnan under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of the victim's father, Muhammad Shabbir.