KARACHI: A woman and her three children were found dead inside their Gulshan-i-Hadeed home on Tuesday in what police suspected to be a case of suicide by the mother.

The bodies were found in the house when the woman’s husband returned from his ancestral home in Nawabshah.

According to the police, the body of 35-year-old Asma Ali was found hanging from the ceiling fan and her three children — eight-year-old Jaweria, five-year-old Areesha and three-year-old Baqar — were lying in the other room.

“The husband of the deceased woman told police that he had left his home on August 7,” said a spokesman for the Malir police. “He admitted to having strained relations with his wife and there was no financial issue involved. He works with a private bank at a senior position. The kids were apparently poisoned and the details of their cause of death would be further explained after a medico-legal examination.”

He said it appeared that the bodies had lain in the house for three to four days and the neighbours did not note anything suspicious during this period.

The bodies were moved to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for a post-mortem examination, he added.

“The family originally hailed from Nawabshah. The couple tied the knot some 10 years ago and settled in Gulshan-i-Hadeed for the past more than five years,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2020