LAHORE: A middle-aged woman and her two teenaged daughters were brutally murdered with sharp-edged weapons in what appeared to be an act of ‘honour’ killing in their shanty in Township on Tuesday, police said. Police took two suspects, who are family members of the deceased, into custody for investigation.

Township police preliminary inquiries showed that suspects Asif and Shahzad tied their stepmother Sughran Bibi, 55, and two stepsisters Taqadus, 18, and Amina, 16, with charpoys and attacked them with sharp-edged weapons.

The suspects also tied their father Shaban Jalal, 70, who raised an alarm which alerted other residents.

Rescue 1122 and police immediately rushed to the spot on emergency calls and shifted the bodies for autopsy.

Shaban had left his shanty along with his second wife and two daughters a couple of months ago and shifted to other place after quarreling with his four sons from first wife, but reunited on Monday last.

Saddar SP (Investigation) Muhammad Iqbal said suspects Asif and Shahzad, who were arrested with murder weapons, confessed to killing their mother and sisters for honour. “Both suspects deal in scrap near their shanties while their father sells wooden swings in the locality.”

The SP while quoting suspects said they developed suspicion over the character of their stepsisters who used to see strangers.

He said it was not established the suspects were addicts and they used to demand money from their father and mother.

The SP said two other brothers Rasheed and Yousaf, who worked in a factory and lived separately, had also been nominated in the murder case by Shaban.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2014