LAKKI MARWAT: A mentally unstable man committed suicide after killing his four children in Bannu district on Wednesday, the police said.

They said the heart-wrenching shooting incident took place near the Kashu Bridge in the limits of Domel police station.

They said the bodies were found lying in a pool of blood when a police party reached the venue on information about the incident.

They said the deceased were identified as Aqleemullah, 28, and his four children, including Awais, 9, Abuzar, 7, Sufyan, 3, and Marryam, 5.

The bodies were shifted to a rural health centre in Domel town, they added.

Shazia Bibi, mother of the deceased children and widow of Aqleem, told the police in her preliminary report that she had gone to the house of her parents in Mash Masti Khani village of Lakki Marwat district. “I rushed to the Kashu Bridge when someone informed me that my husband had killed his four children,” she claimed, telling the police that she found the bodies of her husband and children lying in a pool of blood.

The complainant told the police that her husband killed the children before he shot himself dead with a pistol.

She said her family had no enmity with anyone and that her husband was under treatment for a mental illness.

The police said they recovered a 9mm pistol, bullets, empty bullet cases, a motorcycle, a mobile phone, poisonous pills, three injections, a used syringe and a canola from the crime scene and registered a case under relevant sections of law.

They said the bodies were handed over to relatives after performing medico-legal formalities in the hospital.

Bannu district police officer Ziauddin Ahmed also inspected the crime scene and issued instructions to the subordinate officials to conduct an in-depth investigation into the case. “When the painful incident was reported to police, a party was dispatched to the area immediately,” he said.

Referring to initial investigations, the district police chief said Aqleemullah, who was suffering from a mental disease and was under treatment, picked his children from his in-laws’ house in Mash Masti Khani area and killed them near Kashu Bridge. “Then the killer also shot himself dead,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023