RAWALPINDI, Dec 5: Hot-blooded cousins killed an unrelated young girl when they opened fire inside the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) on Monday to settle a family feud over a second marriage.

Panic gripped the hospital visitors and staff as the shots rang out. Police said three brothers had injured their sister and a cousin in the feud in their house in Mandra, and then followed them to the hospital, who fled after the shooting incident.

Bullets fired by them injured Raja Aqeel whose second marriage had enraged them, but caused fatal injuries to 13-year-old Fatima Amin, a resident of Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, who was waiting in a car outside the hospital for her ailing mother to come out.

“She was hit in the head and rushed to the operation theatre immediately. She was operated upon but did not survive and died late in the evening,” Inspector Raja Qayoom, who is leading the police investigation, told Dawn.

Fatima lived with her mother while her father, Kamran Amin, works in Saudi Arabia. Police identified the brothers behind the shooting as Raja Omer, Raja Masood and Raja Atif, and the sister and cousin Omer injured in Mandra as Uzma and Raja Qasim.

Uzma is married to Raja Qasim's brother while Raja Aqueel was said to be his brother-in-law. “Thank God, no hospital staff nor any patient was injured in the madness,” sighed a HFH nurse.

But those caught in the frenzy that followed the shooting were found cursing the lack of security in the hospital which helped the shooters escape. Even the officials deployed at the hospital's police post were unable to capture the fleeing armed men.

According to the police, Raja Qasim and his brother's wife Uzma were attacked and injured after Uzma's brother Raja Omer opened fire on them at his house in Mandra on Monday morning. Police said Raja Omer and his brothers were annoyed with their cousin Raja Qasim over getting second marriage and they had warned him not to bring his second wife to their home otherwise he would be facing dire consequences.