BAHAWALPUR: A man killed his three minor children from his late wife over a fight with his second wife and attempted suicide at his Quaid-i-Azam Colony house on Thursday.

According to police, Farooq administered pesticides to his children -- Adeel, 8, Zahra, 6, and Zamira, 4, who all died after consuming poison.

He himself swallowed the pesticides also in an attempt to commit suicide and fell unconscious. On being informed, police shifted him to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) in time which saved his life.

Dawn learnt that Farooq’s first wife, Nazia, had died about three years back and he contracted marriage with Shazia. Three days ago, he had a fight with Shazia and she left his house.

After regaining consciousness at hospital, Farooq, who was handcuffed by police, confessed before the media that he had killed his children after a family dispute with his wife. He did not mention the nature of the dispute and claimed that he had strangled his children.

Saddar police sent the children’s bodies to the BVH for postmortem.

They registered a murder case against Farooq on the complaint of children’s maternal uncle Muhammad Arshad.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2016