ISLAMABAD: Five of the seven bodies at PIMS Hospital in Islamabad were identified late Monday night.

The deceased are said to be the relatives of PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar and PTI MNA Nafisa Khattak.

The couple and their three children were strangled. The victims are said to be Australian nationals of Pakistani descent and hail from Nowshera.

A family dispute on land is alleged to be the reason behind the gruesome murders.

Police sources said that post mortem was carried out on all the five victims and arrangements have been made to hand over the bodies to the heirs.

Earlier on Monday, bodies of seven people killed in different incidents were found from three separate spots in the federal capital.

The bodies of a woman, a 10-year-old child, and two men were found in the capital's Sihala area within the remit of the Alius Sabah police station. Police said the hands of the two men were tied and they had been murdered at a different location before their bodies were dumped in Sihala.

Police said they recovered the bodies of a man and a woman dumped in the bushes in an area within the remits of Lohi Bhair police station. They said both victims had been strangled to death.

In a third similar though apparently unrelated incident, a Pakistan-born girl from Singapore was found dead. Police said the girl had been kidnapped three days earlier. The girl’s kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs20 million for her release. Police said they have arrested a man suspected of the crime.

According to a recent report published in Dawn, the federal capital has witnessed an alarming increase in extortion, kidnapping for ransom, and bank robberies.

Police says the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is involved in extorting money from rich people directly and indirectly. The report says the terror group is also indirectly encouraging small groups to collect extortions and share the money with it.

Police say money collected from extortion and ransom is sent abroad through Hundi for onward delivery to the terror network to finance its activities.