KARACHI: The partially decomposed bodies of four people discovered in a pit on Mai Kolachi Road on Friday night were identified on Saturday as those of a woman and her three children.

Police said the four bodies, which were found at a desolate spot within the jurisdiction of the Docks police station, bore marks of torture and appeared to have been killed with an axe or another sharp-edged object.

South DIG Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that the victims were identified as Anila, 35, her two sons, Husain Ali, 12, and Konain Ali, 10, and daughter Kishwara Zehra, 13.

He said Anila got divorced from Mukhtar Ali and on Dec 30, 2025 she rented a house in Kharadar.

Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said that the victims were killed around four to five days ago. She said the corpses were brought to the Civil Hospital Karachi where medico-legal formalities were completed late on Friday night.

The three children suffered multiple injuries in the head, face and neck, while their mother was bludgeoned to death.

“All relevant samples have been collected for intoxication and sexual violence,” said the police surgeon.

FIR lodged

On Saturday, the Docks police registered an FIR under Sections 302 (premediated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against unknown persons for brutally killing the woman and her three children.

The case was registered on behalf of the state through police officer Mohammed Azhar.

The complainant narrated the recovery of the bodies and said in the FIR that “the circumstances give rise to suspicions that the victims were killed elsewhere and their bodies were later dumped in a dried manhole”.

Meanwhile, DIG Raza said there was no CCTV coverage in the deserted area of the Mai Kolachi.

He observed that the injuries on the head and neck of the victims appeared to have been inflicted with an axe and other sharp-edge weapons/instruments.

He suspected that the gruesome murders might be an outcome of the killing in the name of so-called honour.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2026