RAWALPINDI: Police investigations into the murders of a couple, their daughter and niece have revealed that another one of their daughters, Naila, who was missing after they were killed, had threatened to kill them if they did not allow her to marry the man of her choice.

Naila and the man she ran away with were arrested on Monday.

Sher Ali, 45, his 35-year-old wife Aasia Bibi, their daughter and niece were found murdered, with bullet wounds to their heads, in their home in Dhoke Paharian, Adiala Road on July 4.

The police believe all four victims were drugged before they were killed since they found no evidence of resistance.

Naila, Sher Ali’s 16-year-old daughter wanted to marry Mohammad Imran but her mother had promised her hand in marriage to her nephew.

According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Ghias Gul, Naila had planned to kill her parents two days before they were found dead but could not carry it out as her parents went to stay with her uncle due to interruptions in the power supply. When they returned, he said, she had mixed tablets in their drinking water and in the chicken curry she served them.

Quoting Naila, the SP said: “She hated her parents and elder sister who were not in favour of her marrying for love and wanted to get rid of them.”

He said the night she killed her parents, she called in Imran from Chiniot and mixed drugs in the dinner she served her parents.

The SP said her parents and siblings fell unconscious within a short time and that it took a little longer for the drugs to work on her cousin Eiza. Therefore, Imran shot her before killing the couple and their daughter while Naila watched.

SP Gul said the police had no doubt that Naila had a major role in the murders.

Another one of Naila’s sisters had woken up in the room she shared with her parents to find them dead. She had told the police she had seen Naila leaving on her father’s motorcycle with Imran.

A police team led by Inspector Yar Mohammad went to Imran’s native town of Chiniot and arrested him and Naila on Monday.

“She took Rs30,000 from her father’s drawer and ran away on his motorcycle, which the couple abandoned at the Pirwadhai bus stand before leaving for Chiniot,” the SP said, adding that the two will be produced in court for securing remand custody of them.

Since she has been arrested, he said, she seems to be regretting the murders of her parents, sibling and cousin.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2016