LAHORE: A woman and her three children were murdered in their house in Multan, police said on Tuesday, adding that the crime scene was staged as a suicide.

City Police Officer (CPO) Multan Sadiq Ali Dogar confirmed to the media that the woman and her children were murdered, and it was staged as a suicide.

“Certainly, this is not a suicide; this leans more towards murder,” he said. “It was a staged suicide.”

The CPO added that evidence was still being collected and that all aspects of the case are under investigation.

Initially, Rescue 1122 and police received a call on their helplines reporting that a woman had allegedly hanged herself along with her children in an informal settlement near Mumtazabad Phatak in Multan.

However, investigators expressed doubts about the nature of the deaths.

A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that initial findings suggested that the case appeared to be a suspected homicide staged as suicide.

He added that evidence collected from the scene indicated that the victims might have been strangled with a rope before being hanged to mislead investigators.

“The condition of the bodies and the crime scene do not support a straightforward suicide. It seems the children were killed first and then hanged from a ceiling fan, while the scene was arranged to create an impression of suicide,” the officer said.

Police further added that there were no clear signs indicating that the woman had taken her own life.

The situation was complicated by the fact that the bodies had been taken down before police and Rescue 1122 reached the scene, raising concerns of possible evidence tampering.

The officer said that an initial investigation revealed that a domestic dispute had taken place earlier in the day, and the woman had reportedly informed her parents about it. The incident occurred before they could arrive.

They added that post-mortem examinations would determine the exact cause and time of death.

Police said the victims were identified as children aged six, four and three, and that the woman was also pregnant.

Meanwhile, police took the deceased’s husband and his brother into custody for investigation.

On Saturday, a woman, her two minor sons and a man were found dead, while the woman’s two daughters were injured under mysterious circumstances in a flat at Safanwala Chowk in Mozang.

According to police and Edhi, Ayesha, 42, her 10-year-old son Muneeb and 14-year-old son Safeer were found shot dead, while her two daughters, 11-year-old Manahil and 19-year-old Samra, were injured in the flat. A property dealer, Shahid Jatt, was also found shot dead in the flat.

Police shifted the injured girls to the Mayo Hospital for treatment and bodies to the morgue for an autopsy. A case was registered on the complaint of their heirs.