KARACHI, April 30: Five members of a family were found shot dead in their DHA residence on Tuesday, police said. The officials suspected that the head of the family killed his wife and three children before killing himself.

The area police said that bodies of Jawad Durrani, his wife Wajeeha and their children Rehan, Rameen and Haris were recovered from their house in Defence Phase IV.

Mr Durrani and his wife appeared to be in their mid-40s and late-thirties, respectively. Their eldest son was a teenager, the second son was a minor boy and the daughter was 12.

Clifton SP Sarfraz Nawaz told Dawn that Mr Durrani was the chief financial officer of a sugar mill in the province. “His family returned from the UAE only a couple of days ago. We have recovered a pistol lying along the body of Mr Durrani and it appears that he killed his family members before killing himself.”

The police said that a family servant found all the five people dead when he reached to his workplace early in the morning.

They said that all of them were shot in the head from a very close range.

Referring to the statements of victims’ neighbours, the police said that they had also heard sounds of gunshots in the midnight.

The police investigators said that they had found each and every thing inside the house intact which suggested there was no attempt of theft.

The killing in the Defence Housing Authority bungalow came as a grim reminder of the March 2012 incident in which five members of a family were found stabbed to death in their Askari III apartment near the Cantt railway station. Police later claimed to have arrested the driver of the family and said that he killed the family because he wanted to rob the house.

However, in the latest incident, the police insisted that they had enough evidence indicating that no one came from outside and the killing of all the five family members appeared to be linked with some personal issues.

Footage monitored

SSP-South Nasir Aftab told Dawn that CCTV cameras were installed outside the house and the police examined the footage and found that there was no movement of any stranger or some other persons.

“The investigators have also made contacts with relatives, friends and family friends of Mr Durrani and his wife through which we came to know a strange fact. Only a day ago, Mr Durrani had sent an email to his friends stating that this world is going to meet an end.”

The SSP said that the police sent the pistol recovered from the house to a forensic lab for a detailed examination, which would helped them further in investigating the matter.