PESHAWAR: Five members of a family, including two women and two minors, were shot dead in Chamkani locality on the outskirts of the city in the wee hours on Tuesday, police said.

They said that the incident took place in Lala Killay area falling in the limits of Chamkani police station, when an apparently lone killer entered a house and shot dead five members of a family and managed to escape from the scene.

Police identified the slain as Yahya, a class-IV employee at the University of Peshawar, his wife Kainat, two minor sons identified as seven-year-old Shoaib and six-month-old Zohaib and his sister-in-law Esha.

SP rural Shafiullah Khan told reporters that the killer apparently managed to enter the house from the front door after knocking and killed all the family members with a headshot and managed to escape from the back door.

Mr Khan said that they had recovered 9mm empties from the crime scene. He said that apparently it did not appear to be a case of robbery as it was a poor family and the murders seemed to be result of an enmity.

The SP said that the killer made it to the open fields through the house backdoor and then managed to escape.

An official at the Chamkani police station said they were still unsure about the motive behind the killing and the family had yet to nominate someone for the killings.

The police registered and FIR and began investigations.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2018