MARDAN: A property dispute claimed lives of five persons, including two women and an infant, in Mohallah Subidaraan Kacha Sarak here on Sunday, the police said.

Officials of Par Hoti police station said that their preliminary investigations revealed that the alleged killer, who was also addicted to ice drug, had shifted along with his parents and other family members from Hayatabad area of Peshawar to his grandmother’s house here a month ago.

The police said the family had developed some differences with someone in Peshawar, forcing them to shift to Mardan.

The officials said that after spending some days in his grandmother’s house, the ice drug addict, identified as Raees, started demanding of his maternal uncle to hand due share of his mother-inherited property over to him.

The police officials said that the demand took an ugly turn when the drug addict allegedly shot dead his grandmother, maternal uncle along with his wife and a three-year-old son. He was also found dead a few minutes after the occurrence of the incident.

However, reports said the alleged killer was shot dead by his father when he started firing in the air after occurrence of the incident to disperse the people, who had gathered there, to flee the spot.

The deceased were identified as Waqar Khan, 40, his mother, 58, his wife, and his infant son, Azan.

The police lodged an FIR on the complaint of Imtiyaz, an uncle of the slain Waqar, and began further investigations.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2023