SARGODHA, Feb 29: Three members of a family were shot dead and another two were injured on offering resistance to an abduction in a house late on Thursday night in Deowal village, some 40km from here.

Reports said that five armed youngsters of influential families entered the house of widow Kulsoom and tried to abduct her daughter Sidra.

As the inmates tried to resist, Muhammad Yaqoob and his accomplices fired at them. Consequently, Kulsoom, her son Arsalan (12) and daughter Muqadas (11) died on the spot while Sidra and Sardaran, widow’s mother-in-law, suffered bullet wounds. They were rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

Although the Bhalwal police have arrested the five accused, they are not disclosing the names of four of the accused.

It is learnt that the accused are being given `due protocol’ in the police station.

No relative from the ill-fated family has so far approached the police for retrieving the dead bodies.