MARDAN, Feb 24: A man slaughtered his wife and five stepchildren in the Guli Bagh area here on Friday night. The accused, Iftikhar Khan, escaped after the murders. The closed house created suspicions in the minds of area people and on their intervention, the bodies were recovered on Saturday night.

The alleged killer had married the woman, Sultana, a few months ago.

The woman was earlier married to Gohar and after his death, she married Iftikhar. The accused had married twice before.

The killed children were Irfan, 10, Ambreen, 8, Shahzeb, 6, Maryam, 4, and Maria, 3.

The bodies were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital. Till the filing of this report, no family member of the deceased or the alleged killer visited the hospital.

The motive behind the murders could not be known.

An official of the Hoti police station told Dawn that they were trying to locate family members of the deceased.

A doctor in the hospital said it was suspected that the victims were first given some drugs to make them unconscious.