RAWALPINDI, June 20: A young man barged into a girls hostel in the city on Monday and fired at the three sisters running the private facility, killing two of them instantly and injuring the third.

Police said the gunman escaped after venting his anger over one of the sisters, Saira Naz, for rejecting his offer of marriage. Two accomplices waiting in a car outside the hostel in Lal Kurti area whisked him away.

Saira, 22, worked in a bank and lived in the hostel located just a few hundred meters away from the office of the police chief of the Rawalpindi region. Her younger sister, Saima Naz, 20, also paid with her life for the murderer’s madness while the youngest sister, Sobia Naz, 18, received bullet injuries on her face and leg but was declared by doctors to be out of danger. The incident occurred when the girls’ mother, Shah Jehan, along with her brother Ashraf came to visit her daughters from Attock.

Ms Jehan, a divorcee, in her statement told the police that as she reached the hostel at around 11.45am, three young men, including Asad Ali, riding a black car stopped in front of the building.

“Asad got out of the car and walked into the girls’ hostel and straight went into the room of my elder daughter, Saira Naz,” she added.

She said the enraged man shouted at her daughter that he would teach her a lesson for turning down his proposal and opened fire on her with a pistol.

On hearing the gunshots, Saima rushed to her rescue but she was also targeted by the gunman.

The mother of the victims said: “Though Saima tried to escape but the gunman gave her no chance and shot her dead.” She said the gunman also fired at her younger daughter Sobia Naz but she survived.  She said her brother Ashraf tried to intercept Asad but he managed to escape.

According to doctors at the District Headquarters Hospital, Sobia, who suffered injuries to her mouth and a leg, was in a stable condition but unable to record her statement.

Talking to this reporter, Mohammad Ashraf, the uncle of the victims said: “When I arrived at the hostel, both of my nieces had died.”

Moving scenes were witnessed in the hospital when the bodies were being handed over to their family members. Sub-inspector Mian Imran, who is leading the investigation into the case, said police raided the house of the alleged killer at Mohanpura but he was not there.

The police said the alleged killer was associated with the Punjab Cooperative Department as a sub-inspector.