LARKANA: A man, with the aid of his close relatives, shot dead his two teenage nieces and critically wounded their mother in sleep after barging into their house in Nazar locality here on Friday.

The suspect Saeed Chandio, who was staying at the guestroom adjacent to the house of his brother Azmat Ali Chandio, called his associates and together they barged into the house early on Friday morning and sprayed with bullets Hafeezan, 19, Farah, 17, and their mother Rubina Chandio while they were sleeping.

The victims were immediately taken to Trauma Centre at the Chandka Medical College Hospital where the two sisters succumbed to their injuries while the mother was admitted for treatment.

Azmat Chandio told journalists at the hospital that he had moved his family from Jamal village near Lalu Rounk town and settled in Nazar locality in Larkana about 12 years ago. His brother Saeed was staying at the house as guest that day and escaped after the murders, he said.

He appealed to DIG and SSP of Larkana and other authorities to order immediate arrest of the killers.

Faheem Chandio, the victims’ brother, said that his cousins had been forcing them to return to their ancestral village since the very day they had moved to Larkana.

Police officials said that preliminary findings pointed to an old dispute at the root of the double murder. “We are investigating the incident from different angles to unearth the exact motive behind the crime,” they said.

The bodies were handed over to relatives after completion of medico-legal formalities.

Police have not so far registered any FIR of the double murder and the suspected killers are still at large.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2024